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Gouveia to coordinate corporate efforts for rugby
Says stakeholder collaboration on sport necessary
By Edison Jefford
There could be a silver lining behind the dark clouds of shortage of corporate support for national sport teams with the intervention of Chairman of the Private Sector Commission, Gerry Gouveia to help raise funds for Rugby Football.
President of the West Indies Rugby Union (WIRU), Kit Nascimento told Kaieteur Sports exclusively yesterday that Gouveia had volunteered to talk with Guyana’s national teams in an effort to rally corporate Guyana behind them.
The national male and female teams that are to attend the Caribbean Championships were in a spot of bother as it relates to the necessary US$30,000 funding that is required for the November 14-15 competition in Mexico.
Gouveia told this newspaper at the National Park yesterday where he initially met the two Rugby units that the current situation of shortage of funds for national teams need a more concerted effort from all major stakeholders.
“It is a little disenchanting for me that our sports teams have to be struggling for funding when sport is a very important part of national development,” he said, while reiterating in no uncertain terms the need for collaboration.
Gouveia believes that it is a major distraction to preparation of national teams when they have to be scampering around to procure funding to represent their country at the highest levels. There is no dignity in that according to him.
“Government, Corporate Guyana and the Private Sector need to come together to make it work. Using the things that we produce, we need to start asking ourselves what we can do to help,” the Private Sector Commission Chairman said.
He called on corporate community to privately initiate discussions on how they can help, not just Rugby, but sport in general get to a respectable place. “They should pick a sport and start talking in their boardrooms,” he continued.
Asked if he thinks Government must have a leading role in the corporate development of sport, Gouveia made it clear that the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport under Minister Dr. Frank Anthony “huge responsibility” in this regard.
Gouveia said the ministry has human resources at its disposal with sportsmen and women that practice their respective disciplines “for the love of it”. He said that is an undermined area that pleads for the respect of administrations.
Looking intently at the local ruggers practice, the Private Sector Chairman indicated that he “is actually excited about the possibilities” of a unified effort aimed at ending athletes’ sponsorship woes. He said sport is youth empowerment.
Guyana would be on the verge of history once they procure the necessary funding for the Caribbean Championships in Mexico. Guyana is defending Sevens champs and once they repeat, they will qualify for the Commonwealth contest.
In addition to that, Guyana will also be eligible for the World Sevens Championships in the United States. The Commonwealth competition is slated for October next year while the World Sevens Series will be held in February.
These events are likely to distinguish Guyana among the best Rugby playing countries in the English-speaking Caribbean and in the World. The support of Corporate Guyana and Government are the stairways to those destinations.
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