Kashif and Shanghai extravaganza:The organizers should pay attention to their detractors

Jan 03, 2010 Sports

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By Michael Benjamin
Eight days of pulsating football which included four preliminary matches, four quarter-finals and two semi-finals was culminated with the final and the third place playoff when the curtains came down on the 20th edition of the Kashif and Shanghai football extravaganza Friday night last.
More than 18,000 screaming football fans witnessed the final while another boisterous group that exceeded three thousand was disallowed entry due to a packed stadium.
This year, the promoters threw down the gauntlet and football buffs were afforded the rare opportunity of mingling with arguably the world’s most popular football icon, King Pele. The tournament, conceptualized some twenty years ago by Kashif Mohammed and Aubrey ‘Shanghai’ Major, has grown from a ‘little scrubby’ comprising just four teams to a national, eagerly awaited occasion with teams from all of the sub associations competing for the ‘Holy Grail’ plus bragging rights.
This year’s tournament was laden with surprises and the prediction that either Pele FC or Alpha ‘The Hammer’ United would have carted off the prestigious accolade they last lifted in the 19th edition, was rubbished by the astounding level of play by some of the lowly rated teams.  This was evident when the Riddim Squad side, which entered the tournament under a veil, put up a sterling display after being written off by the football pundits. They were eventually booted out by Camptown in the quarter-finals stage but can hold their heads up high knowing that they would have defied the skeptics who felt that their progress would have been checked very early in the tournament.
There is no need to regurgitate the dismay experienced by Pele fans when that team dropped their semi-final encounter to Western Tigers after a penalty shootout. Nor can the many fans that trudged to the venue in the final, in support of Alpha ‘The Hammer’ United, come to grips with their team’s 2-nil defeat to eventual champions, BK International Western Tigers.  Some of these disappointed fans were heard muttering, “That is the nature of the game.” That may have been their prognosis but one cannot fault the high level of determination and commitment demonstrated by the Tigers to eventually lift the accolade which had eluded them before.
The smoke has now settled and obviously Western Tigers would still be regaling in their success. The next tournament is another twelve months away but no doubt the K&S Promoters cannot rest on their laurels. It is imperative that they conduct a forensic of the tournament to retain the high standards Guyanese have come to expect.
Firstly, they would want to evaluate the effectiveness of King Pele’s visit and the benefits derived from it. They would also be well advised to address some of the concerns raised by a few stakeholders.
When Kashif and Shanghai invited Pele to witness the opening ceremony they must have had a particular agenda. Pele’s visit materialized through the concerted effort of several persons and even though the K&S duo would have been credited for the historic event, they have also acknowledged the input of Captain Gerry Gouveia and some other important persons in making the visit a reality. Additionally, the promoters felt that even though the visit by the ‘King of Football’ have set them back a few millions, the momentousness of the visit would have sufficed in terms of the benefits derived now and those that will be derived later. Obviously, the large crowd that turned out for the finals would have softened the financial blow somewhat.
Maybe, one of the issues that should attract urgent attention is the accusation leveled at the organizers of supporting illegal betting. This accusation came from Alpha United boss, Odinga Lumumba.
He opined that announcements aired over the public address system offering huge sums of cash as an incentive to one of the teams in one of the semi-final matches was akin to gambling. The outspoken Lumumba convened a press conference to voice his disgruntlement over the situation.
The promoters could defend their position and maybe justify the claim that the announcement was not necessarily promoting gambling. They refrained from a confrontation and to their credit they grabbed the proverbial ‘bull by the horns.’ The organizers immediately issued a directive to those concerned to desist from such behaviour. They were adamant that a repeat would have attracted strong sanctions. Odinga was also disgruntled over the shifting of the quarter-final match between Alpha Utd and Conquerors from the Providence Stadium to the Mackenzie Sports Club Ground. The promoters bent backwards and re-sited the fixture to the Georgetown Football Club Ground. There was no dissent to Lumumba’s concerns. The promoters simply attempted to fix the situation to the benefit of all concerned.
The tournament is now over and it would serve the promoters well to evaluate the entire proceedings so as to minimize future faux pas.
There is no doubt that the K&S football tournament will continue to grow to massive proportions. In just two years the tournament that had outgrown the MSC is threatening to outgrow the Providence Stadium. The promoters had worked hard to bring the tournament to this stage. They cannot now become complacent and lose all that they have built over the years in one fell swoop.
The K&S tournament is now too important to every Guyanese to fall by the wayside.

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