Following the eventual selection of Steve Ninvalle as Director of Sport, after the confirmation of the new NSC board of directors, Shadow Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Jermaine Figueira, sat down with Stabroek Sport to discuss the recent appointments.
President of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) Ninvalle was appointed the new Director of Sport, following a virtual meeting on May 30th. The forum included the Commissioners of the National Sports Commission (NSC) and Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson Jr.
Initially, the Government of Guyana via the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, officially announced the composition of the board of NSC, paving the way for Ninvalle’s subsequent appointment.
Established football promoter Kashif Muhammad is the chairman of the six-member board which was gazetted on May 20th and comprises several notable sports administrators in various disciplines.
The other members of the NSC panel are Guyana Hockey Board President Phillip Fernandes, President of the Guyana Lawn Tennis Association Cristy Campbell, consultant Dellon Davidson, Guyana Cricket Board boss Bissoondyal Singh and Chartered Accountant Chetram Ramdihal
The appointment of the Board of Directors of the NSC will last for the duration of two years. Below features the entirety of the exclusive interview with the APNU Parliamentarian.
SS: What are your thoughts on the appointment of Steve Ninvalle as Director of Sport?
JF: “With regards to the names that were being touted for the position, Mr. Ninvalle I believe possessed the most combined qualities of academic, administrative and promotional experience. However, it would be remiss of me not to state that Mr. Ninvalle would have worked in the ministry before and also has an association with boxing. The challenge however is for him to be seen as being able to positively impact sports at the macro level, across the country.
“But given Mr. Ninvalle’s explicit strengths of viewing the issues but doing nothing, complemented with the poor makeup of the board and pettiness in the posture of the minister, one could hardly expect anything transformational. Mr. Ninvalle is on record as saying there is much work to be done but he never ventured to say how it would be done, a mirror of his stint as Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Sports.”
SS: How will Ninvalle’s appointment affect or what kind of impact does it have on the formation of the sports policy?
JF: “This will be an important test for Mr. Ninvalle, thus one would expect that his personal secretary/advisor should possess vast experience in sports management at the macro level. Given his past stint at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, it is hard to gauge him on national policy, since he was only visible from the shadows and publicly did little outside of boxing. Therefore, I doubt he will be of any significant aid to the ministry on the issue of a national sports policy.”
3. What are your thoughts on the composition of the NSC board?
“I had much expectations for a superb concoction of real qualified and experience persons but most unfortunate, this is not so. This board exemplifies a PPP supplemental national elections list, where you make the cut only by association, but not how impactful is your sporting association or sporting experience. The representative absence of the athletics and football national associations readily comes to mind, but this is not unexpected given the behaviour of the subject Minister since taking office. I will agree to a broad-based representation, but central to that, there should be leaders in the specific associations and not impositioned favoured surrogates to satisfy the whims and fancies of an egotistical Minister with dictatorial tendencies.”
“The relevant Act 23 of 1993 allows for 11 members on the NSC board, hence allowing broader representation, but this will only happen if the PPP/Minister can leverage the leadership of those non-represented associations. This is most unfortunate for the country’s developmental trajectory for all sport disciplines in general.”
SS: Can their respective appointments be seen as a positive step forward for an industry that has always been marginalised and left in the doldrums?
JF: “It is my hope that all board members are an asset to some national sports association, but I will not bet on that, given the levels of societal degeneration this country has experienced since August 2020. Truth be told, they are about three members of the NSC board known in Guyana for promoting an individual sport discipline at the micro-level.”
“However, it’s difficult to project a positive macro output in sports from this board against what is known nationally. Nevertheless, the National Sports Com-mission Act, makes provision for financial grants to sports associations at Article 5 (a) and it is my optimistic expectation that this would be utilised in an unbiased way to assist all sports disciplines and by extension their athletes.”
