On Saturday last, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport (MCYS) issued a statement on its ongoing imbroglio with the media with regard to restricted access to the Guyana National Stadium, Providence for reporting on the conditions at the facility.
Claiming that there is no ban of the media or any particular reporter from the stadium, the MCYS statement read in part: “For the sake of clarity on the issue, the ministry has sought to establish a simple procedure for media reporting on the condition of the ground at the Guyana National Stadium, that is, a letter is written to the ministry to schedule a visit to the ground by any media personnel/representative for the purpose of reporting on its condition. This visit will be expeditiously facilitated and will be conducted in the presence of a representative of the ministry.”
The so-called simple procedure, it said, was a response to “a false media report” on the condition of the ground. The MCYS insisted that it had refuted the said report, which it claimed had been made without media personnel visiting the ground since staff denied observing any visit, nor was there any such revelation when the stadium’s cameras were reviewed.
This MCYS press release is in response to a letter from the Guyana Press Association (which the ministry stated that it was unable to confirm receipt of) seeking clarification after members of the media had been prevented from entering the stadium on January 28, and were duly informed that they required permission from the ministry to do so.
The tone of this press release issued under the direction of Minister Charles Ramson Jr, who has been in office for only six months, is not good news and we should all be paying close attention to the direction in which this kind of statement is pointing.
The MCYS statement contains a very serious allegation of false reporting directed at this newspaper and a rather frivolous claim about the ministry’s “responsibility to protect the image and reputation of the facility.”
“It is also important to note that the condition of the ground at the Guyana National Stadium is the basis for Guyana being able to host international and regional tournaments. This means that the ministry has a responsibility to protect the image and reputation of the facility. This also means that reporting on the condition of the ground must be responsible. It is for these foregoing reasons that the ministry has established a simple procedure for the reporting on the condition of the ground of the Guyana National Stadium by the media,” the statement said.
This farce was intended to contradict a report carried by this newspaper on 11th January, which stated that “the six-pitch square [at the National Stadium] was riddled with holes and gashes presumably from the pegs of the footballers’ boots” who had participated in the Kashif and Shanghai (K&S) Bounce Back Football Tournament hosted by the K&S Organization, the Guyana Football Federation and the MCYS, on 29th December and 1st January. The report, which was accompanied by a very graphic photograph of the damage inflicted on the ground, quoted an unnamed official from the venue who observed, “It is in a state. The football has damaged the ground severely. Most importantly, the square is damaged as you saw for yourself.” (The square with the six pitches has recently been re-laid). The source further added that the Guyana Cricket Board’s (GCB) request for the use of the facility for the national team’s preparations for the Regional Super50 tournament to be held in Antigua this month was in jeopardy.
Minister Ramson, following an inspection of the facility then spoke to the media on 12th January, and categorically denied that the ground had been damaged. The minister further declared that there appeared to be an attempt to malign the stadium and the ministry.
Minister Ramson then shifted his attack to the controlling body of local cricket the following day, when he advised Cricket West Indies that the GCB was “illegitimate” and had been banned from the National Stadium. The ban was announced via the ministry’s Facebook page and read in part, “As a consequence of a failed attempt to denigrate the Guyana National Stadium and to maliciously incite public disquiet by an illegitimate body purporting to call itself the ‘Guyana Cricket Board’ by causing to be published images of the ground which have proven to be false, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport has taken a decision to prohibit entry of the members of the illegitimate body to the Guyana National Stadium ground with immediate effect until there is full compliance with the restored Cricket Administration Act.”
The extent to which Minister Ramson has gone to deny any damage to the six-pitches at the National Stadium can be only described as mind boggling. The minister was standing on the sidelines during the second half of the K&S Bounce Back Classic final on New Year’s Day when it rained. The football pitch had inexplicably been laid in the centre of the ground, encompassing the square, thus guaranteeing damage to the pitches, which was only further compounded by the rain.
That being the case, there is a multitude of questions for the minister to answer. Why was it necessary to use the National Stadium for what was a non-spectator event? Was the stadium chosen because it was somehow necessary to showcase an event of which the MCYS was a co-sponsor? There are a number of suitable alternative venues including the GFF facility opposite the stadium, the National Synthetic Track and Field facility at Leonora (which has hosted all of Guyana’s international matches of late) or the Mackenzie Sports Club Ground, the original location of the K&S tournament. If only the National Stadium was available, why wasn’t the football field laid out on the western or eastern sides of the ground to minimize any possible damage to the cricket pitch, given the ministry’s trumpeted responsibility to protect the stadium?
The National Stadium has a general manager, who is a former government minister to boot, and full-time staff who should be quite capable of dealing with visits by the media. Why does the minister have to micro-manage the National Stadium? Do West Indian reporters require permission from their governments to look at the pitches at national stadiums around the Caribbean? One expects those ministers have more important matters to deal with rather than journalists inspecting sporting venues.
Guyana’s minister responsible for sport obviously has a lot to learn. Lest we forget, there was an extensive letter from the president of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) published by this newspaper on 18th January in which he went to great pains to enlighten the minister that sports associations/federations are autonomous bodies which should be void of government interference. He also pointed out the dangers of athletes participating in non-sanctioned events and provided an insight to the role of the GOA and the relationships of sports associations/federations with their international federations and the best way to resolve issues that might arise from time to time.
Rather than overseeing sports, the minister appears to be hell bent on autocratic meddling, which does not augur well for local sports and brings to mind Claudius’s words to Gertrude in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “…When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.”
Perhaps the minister should reflect on the real meaning of the words he uttered to the media when denying that there was any damage to the National Stadium, “Let’s be clear that the Guyana National Stadium is not owned by anyone; it’s owned by the people of the country. It’s not owned by any sport, it is owned by the various sports which require its usage in order for them to be able to advance their standing nationally and globally.”