MAKING USE OF OVERSEAS-BASED ATHLETES

Mar 17, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The ladies that formed the national football team also caught the Peeper’s eye. They were beautiful.
One columnist of this newspaper has already commented on the ethnic makeup of the Lady Jaguars and used this as an introduction to what he perceives as the dispossession of Africans from areas in which they had traditionally held dominance within our society.
This columnist would like to approach this issue from another angle.
This columnist sees the makeup of the team as reflecting the success which can be had from having a wide range of players to choose from and specifically, from making use of overseas-based Guyanese.
In a country where football has traditionally been played by mainly African Guyanese, it must have caused some surprises for the national football team to have had such variety. But the reason for the ethnic diversity of the Lady Jaguars has nothing to do with the increased penetration of other groups into local football but rather has to do with the fact that the selectors have made use of Guyanese footballers who are playing overseas.
A reading of the profile of the players of the team would reveal that many of them are playing in North America, some in their colleges and universities. And no doubt because of the higher standard of football to which these overseas- based players are exposed, they were able to command a place in the national team.
The performance of the team was outstanding. They won both of their matches and Guyana was made proud. This shows that once we make use of that vast resource of talent that resides in Region 11, that is, sport can go places.
The success of the Lady Jaguars is directly correlated to the fact that we used overseas-based Guyanese as part of the national team. This of course is not the first time that this has been done in football. Overseas–based players have been known to represent Guyana in football over the years. One recalls that the son of a famous Guyanese cricketer came back home and represented Guyana at football.
Overseas- based Guyanese have also represented Guyana in other sporting disciplines, including cycling and athletics, at the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games.
For a long time, Guyana has talked about making use of the Diaspora, of integrating this community which is probably now just as large as the resident population at home, into the local economy so as to tap into the skills of these overseas-based Guyanese.
Not all of the residents of Region 11 are willing to come back home. Most of them have family commitments and responsibilities and are not going to re-migrate. But this does not mean that they cannot make a contribution to this country.
This column in fact has offered the opinion that the organisers of local beauty pageants should invite some of the overseas-based Guyanese to participate in local pageants since this would add better competition to these pageants.
We should do the same for sports, since the involvement of overseas-based Guyanese would allow us to pick the best possible teams and raise the standards of local competition.
Every single sporting discipline should give serious thought to this.
Right now there are Guyanese who are playing cricket for the United States and these players can hold their own if given the chance to play for the Guyana national team since some of them have done so before.
In boxing, who knows, we may have another world champion in the making, except that the person may be residing in London or New York. There is a great deal of potential out there and thus there must be a concerted effort to integrate these Guyanese into the local sporting fraternity since while many of them may not make the grade for their country of residence, they can distinguish themselves when representing Guyana.
A deliberate policy of encouraging overseas-based Guyanese to participate in local sports should be undertaken. The various sporting organisations only need to publicise the dates of their various competitions and those interested overseas-based Guyanese are going to come home and participate.
However, if the overseas-based Guyanese are not given adequate notice, then they will not be able to make themselves available.
A website should be created on which would be advertised the dates of various national championships and major competitions in each sport. Such a website will also allow overseas-based Guyanese to indicate to the local sporting organisations their interest in national selection.
So while we muse on the composition of the Lady Jaguars, let us also see the other side to it, the one in which we can tap into the vast potential that exists within the Diaspora.

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