Dear Editor,
Recently myself and some friends were at the Albion Sports Complex ground watching a Telenec 50 overs first division match between Albion and Port Mourant when as usual on occasions like these the topic of discussion was cricket and sports generally and a friend remarked that he does not listen to and watch NCN radio and television anymore especially the sports news. His grouse was that they hardly cover cricket in Guyana and the world generally. Since that remark, I have been thinking about what he said and I have to agree with him.
Editor, I am a big fan of NCN radio and television, after all it is our national broadcaster, but their sports news leaves a lot to be desired. You get the impression, for NCN, Georgetown is Guyana because most of the time they will only cover sporting activities in Georgetown. It is as if Berbice does not exist. They hardly cover any sporting activities in Berbice, especially cricket. The same goes for regional and international cricket even when Guyana and the West Indies are playing. Cricket is being played all over the world, yet NCN does not even give Guyanese the scores of those matches. As the great Reds Pereira said recently at his press conference to announce his retirement from cricket broadcasting, cricket is the only unifying vehicle that brings people together in Guyana and the West Indies and when the government talks about social cohesion they should use cricket to bring the people together. Cricket is social cohesion and NCN should play its part in this regard.
I therefore call on Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo to have a close look on the content of the NCN sports news and to ensure that they cover sporting activities not only in Georgetown, but the whole of Guyana and keep us up to date with scores of cricket matches played in the West Indies and the wider world. And do not tell us it cannot be done because of time constraints, because the late great BL Crombie use to give us cricket scores from matches played all over the world and cover other sports as well in all of ten minutes. And if those that we have at NCN cannot do it in ten minutes, then give them fifteen minutes. Hope to see some change at NCN Prime Minister.
Yours faithfully,
Imtiaz Baccus.
