They deserve to be there

Jun 30, 2010 Sports

– another team made to suffer

By Rawle Welch

The news that Guyana ‘Lady Jaguars’ will not be competing at the CAC Games scheduled to be held in Puerto Rico next month must have dealt a severe blow to the group of ball-weavers who sacrificed so much to represent this country.

Once again the reason offered is the old defence of lack of funding to get the team to where the tournament is being held.

The question of who is to blame is absolutely extraneous at this time, but more importantly is the fact that the release of such devastating news must be a shattering development for those young ladies and their respective families who gave so much support during the qualifying stages to be with them whenever possible that allowed them to meet the criteria to be part of the tournament.

Some even had to solicit permission to be away from college to undergo the rigorous training required to compete with success at such a high level.

A release from the local governing body gave as the primary reason the fact that they’ve already expended in excess of US$150,000 for the Teams participation in the Gold and World Cup qualification and was not in a position to finance the trip to Puerto Rico.

It added that the conclusion was made during an Emergency Meeting held with the GFF Executive to decide whether or not the team would be participating in the competition. The release further stated that the decision was taken due to the absence of funding from the GOA, the Government, and Corporate Guyana.

“It is regrettable that when our national representative Teams qualify for such high level participation in regional and international tournaments that the support of all sectors and agencies concerned with the promotion and development of Sport in Guyana is not readily forthcoming,” the release went on to say.

Many letters have been written about the uncaring attitude of some administrators and the above mentioned parties, but the continued mental onslaught on our athletes remain.

There seems to be no forward planning by anyone and this might be because of the absence of a National Sports Policy which if it is done in detail would address such issues and return with a positive outcome due to the broad based consultative process that such a Policy demands.

Until Sport Administrators, the GOA, Government and the Private Sector begin to speak with one voice which could only come through the release of such a document; there will be many more instances of disappointment for our athletes.

Many local fans came out in support of the ‘Lady Jaguars’ during the qualifying phase and to hear of a lack of support for such an outstanding national team should induce calls a deeper investigation.

This matter should not be allowed to be swept under the carpet, but should be vigorously pursued to find out the reason (s) why a team with as good a chance as any other of the travelling contingents could not find favour with the above mentioned entities.

It would also be instructive for readers to know the overall cost of taking the team to Puerto Rico since many of the girls would be coming from North America which might make it less costly and how much of that cost the GFF was willing to bear with the other parties taking up the slack.

They deserve to be there, they earned the right to be there.