Dear Editor,
I waited almost 45 minutes on June 24 to call in to Sporting Action Line on 102.5FM hosted by Edwin Seeraj, and when I finally got through, I complimented him for listening to bilge from the Coordinator of the Digicel Schools Championship tournament, Lavern Fraser-Thomas. Ms Fraser-Thomas and Sherwin Osborne were the two guests on the programme. The Coordinator’s contribution subsequently confirmed my long held suspicion that the tournament over the years has been poorly administered.
Ms Fraser-Thomas has been integrally involved in sports since her youthful days at Bishops as an athlete. She is a former netball player and national coach; a Fruta Conquerors executive; a sports organizer for UG; and a GFA executive, serving as President (ag) as recently as last year prior to the AGM. With such an impressive resumé, and given that she is an executive of the National Sports Commission presently, how come the youth policy relating to teams’ registration is being done in such an ad hoc manner? On match day, for example, only four players turned up with birth certificates. This is nonsense. The Coordinator must know that the registration of players must have a cut-off date. Furthermore, with schools’ participation, it’s much easier, since all schools in the various regions would have records of a player’s full name, date of birth and address, and so too would the Ministry of Education.
Is there a match commissioner for each match, who submits a report within 48 hours, along with one from the referee? Which individual decides if a ground is playable? What role do the Regional administrations and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils play in providing playable venues? Are all matches officiated by personnel from the Guyana Football Referee Council, including in remote hinterland areas? Editor, in relation to grounds, the Digicel’s representative had advocated, “The GFF should provide assistance in relation to grounds, since on the entire East Bank, none is playable”. In all fairness to the GFF, how can they provide assistance with grounds, moreso, in some remote areas of the hinterland where there are no associates, much less affiliates. Furthermore, the East Bank is probably the most active association affiliated to the GFF.
Finally, the only problem I foresee on the East Bank is that the competitions are played on the Grove ground only. Further, for the senior competitions, more experienced officiating personnel would be utilized. So, in actuality I cannot fathom Mr Osborne’s perception. Nevertheless, realistically speaking more grounds should be made available, with the Timehri Red Ground being given priority for rehabilitation, while others can be looked at. With the tournament’s Coordinator being a member of the NSC, maybe she can be more informative about the rehabilitation or upgrade of community grounds. By the way, normally a workshop was held for coaches, but I can’t recall any being held for administrators, which in my estimation is equally important for lifting the sport, and which would eventually assist schools and communities in terms of administration. In addition, at what stage of the tournament is a physiotherapist utilized?
Yours faithfully,
Lester Sealey
