The government of Guyana is about to change.
But will there by a change in the governance of sports in Guyana?
What awaits sports in Guyana is anyone’s guess.
For far too long, besides cricket and to a lesser extent, football, sports in the 592 has been treated more or less as just a form of entertainment and not a business by both the PPP/C and the coalition.
Both have been ‘guilty parties’
Sportsmen and women have been treated as mere entertainers that are subject to meaningless photo opportunities with government officials after achieving a heroic or historic feat.
This trivial tradition needs to change.
The CARICOM scrutineers of the just concluded recount of the March 2 elections emphatically stated that GECOM needs a complete overhaul. Same can be said for local sports. From the grassroots level to the top, drastic changes in the right direction need to be made in order for sports and athletes to be relevant.
The PPP/C will return to the unfinished Sports Policy which was promised by the coalition and by they themselves during their previous term in office. The Sports Policy seems to be a pipe dream being sold by both parties. It makes one wonder if the politicians are really serious about sports and local sportsmen and women.
Changes need to be birthed.
The new government must strategize to tackle head on the flat lining levels of sport participation and high levels of sports inactivity locally. Those at the helm need to redefine what success in sport means for individual development, social and community development and economic development.
Funding of sports and sporting federations cannot be done in an ad hoc manner. Decisions should be made via annual sports plans and budgets by associations and on the basis of the outcomes that sport and physical activity can deliver.
The government also needs to ensure that relevant departments work closer together to create a more physically active nation, where our children and young people enjoy the best sporting opportunities available and people of all ages and backgrounds can enjoy the many benefits that sport and physical activity brings.
Government also should reaffirm its commitment to Olympic success but also extending that ambition to non-Olympic sports where they will support success through grassroots investment in those sports.
The stadium is packed, the local sports fraternity is watching. To those that will govern sports, it’s time to pad up and walk to the crease.
