Kashif and Shanghai have planted their feet sturdily into the game’s history

Feb 03, 2010 Sports

Dear Editor,

As has become the norm, the Kashif and Shanghai tournament was yet another success story; there is much for them to be smiling about, quite apart from sweet monetary gain which of course is trump.

In the words of co-director Kashif Mohammed everything went so well that we are more than pleased, but surely there is every reason to be. This tournament will go down as being the most single significant event in history of football – nay! Sport for that matter that has ever occurred in Guyana, the presence of King Pele, the man who held the world at his feet, to walk among us.

Who or whatever else helped and play a part in his coming, can in no way take away nor lessen the role of Kashif and Shanghai organisation, which must he fully credited. As always grand organisers, forever with a searching eye for new and spectacular things, whatever short-coining they might have been flayed for over the years, this particular occasion, this Pele “home coming” was to a great extent a kind of balm that was both soothing and redeeming and no doubt it was understandable with those who snatched the opportunity to piggyback on the organisation for this grand event.

Indeed for many it was like a dream come through, some thought it was almost not likely to happen as it did.

Pele’s visit meant much more to older folks than our younger footballers/enthusiasts. The older folks though they never saw him in person, lived his experience and glory, his name rolled off the lips of every aspiring footballer/athlete and sport enthusiast; he was their hero, like a Muhammad Ali/Garfield Sobers.

The red carpet welcome was in order but the simplicity of the ‘King’ caught my attention as it did to many others, such a great man yet so simple a person. Maybe the countless times he has been so honoured, shown open admiration, paid homage to with pomp and glitz incomparable to ours were partly responsible for his smooth and cool deportment. So close we are to Brazil our neighbour and the ‘King’ never heard of clubs in our land adopting the name of his club and that of his name also: Santos/Pele.

Indeed he was sure moved when he saw that as any great man would have been, after all he in only human and even though the opening game in honour of this great footballer par excellence was scrappy the tournament ended on a high note, in flying colours.

I still maintain that the present quality of football is below the standard of what I saw in my time as a youth. Nevertheless they must be commended once again, they have made their mark in the football arena, towering above all others who have ever held office in the name of football; they have certainly planted their feet sturdily into this sport that history will long/forever remember.

But I need to end with an observation: while the name Kashif and Shanghai is now a house hold name having been indelibly implanted over 20 years and which I think should not be changed, my judgment tells me that this tournament, judging from the flood of sponsorship/donations from private and cooperate businesses/establishment across the country which take care of almost every aspect of the tournament and which seems almost completer though it keeps growing every year, along with the enthusiast involvement of the government, when all this is taken into consideration, then it becomes easy to reason that this national sport/event is no more solely in the hands of Kashif and Shanghai but rather is now incorporated into a wider entity.

Frank Fyffe

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Kashif and Shanghai have planted their feet sturdily into the game’s history

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