Scope, Scoops and Scandals

Jun 27, 2009 Sports

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By Edison Jefford
Frederick Kissoon would often state that you may not have the right opinion but you have the right to your opinion and in that context, space will not be wasted in Kaieteur Sport to dignify Stabroek Sport’s general opinion.
Some views are not worth dignifying with a response. However, there are some elements that need to be addressed, lest readers get the wrong idea about the administration of sport in Guyana and, by extension, the Caribbean.
Those distortions surfaced in Stabroek’s “Sports Scope” earlier this week and I will deal categorically with the myths and facts following the genesis of the furore that stemmed from the release of the national table tennis team.
General Secretary of the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA), Godfrey Munroe has since denied giving this newspaper the senior team that will contest the Caribbean Senior Table Tennis Championships in French Guiana.

Everything besides the introductory paragraphs in the “Sports Scope” related to me and it is within my right to offer clarification and analysis where necessary. I have ensured that my by-line is inserted because I have nothing to hide.
The opinion piece stated that it seems as if I am “unaware of the procedures pertaining to team selections” and then went on to give an ‘ideal’ procedural mechanism that Stabroek Sport should know is usually far from reality.
Very few local sport associations undergo the process of selection of a national team that was outlined in the “Sports Scope”. It is just not practical because the same financial impediment alluded to will be a major humbug.
If the Stabroek Sport department was paying attention to the developments of local table tennis, it would know that the GTTA had identified the Independence tournament as part of the basis of selection for national teams.
In fact, the GTTA shortlist of players was primarily derived from that tournament, which was the most recent, apart from a competition at Malteenoes Sports Club. There was no later indication that trials would be held.
Stabroek Sport should be very much aware of the fact that the selection of many national teams is ad hoc. For instance, overseas-based athletes do not participate at national trials, but yet they are selected to represent the country.

This is unlike thriving sport destinations like Trinidad and Jamaica, for example, which makes it compulsory for local and international athletes to compete in the same trials for national selection. That does not happen in Guyana.
Can whoever wrote the “Sports Scope” indicate whether Paul David or other overseas-based players were coming to Guyana to participate in trials? One can only assume that trials are normally planned in advance.
However, the idea is that international campaigners are automatic national choices. This is a flawed ideology that has been critically addressed in many circles and brings me to my next reference on the subject of national selection.
The writer of the opinion piece went on to state that the national composition for French Guiana will be “only those players who would be able to acquire sponsorship or fund their own way”. This is a devastating revelation.
A national team represents the pride of a country not the wealth of a country. Since when players that are able to buy their way onto a national team, as the comment suggested, are given validation ahead of the best players.

Stabroek Sport should be embarrassed to publish that nonsense since it plainly discredits those athletes, past and present, who have earned the right to represent Guyana whether they are financially secured or not.
The opinion seems to suggest that athletes can ‘buy’ national status. That should never be encouraged and if that is the position of the GTTA, with players that can afford it making the team, the premise should attract condemnation.
The “Sports Scope’s” partial assessment of the team given to Kaieteur Sport requires no response since it was basically that newspaper’s take on who should make the team and who should not for whatever reason(s).
But what is worthy of a conclusive response is “the answer might lie in Jefford’s reaction whenever he feels he has been scooped” as quoted in the opinion piece and sort of makes the claim that I pluck facts out of the heaven.
If that is the case, I could imagine the pile of lawsuits that would have hit Kaieteur Sport, but since that is not reality, our information had to have been accurate and within the confines of what can be called ‘proper’ journalism.
On the other hand, there are usually personal reactions to certain individuals who appear to be in contrast with the hierarchy of Stabroek Sport. I will not go into details since our space is dedicated to more serious issues.
However, there exists several victims of Stabroek Sport’s personal wrath; Steve Ninvalle was one when he contested the Presidency of the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association and before him, Owen John and Kashif and Shanghai.
This just boils down to Stabroek Sport’s lack of scope, Kaieteur Sport’s scoops and many public scandals. I understand my role as a qualified journalist. The writer of the “Sports Scope” needs to pat the GTTA on its back.

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