Latest update March 2nd, 2025 7:20 AM
Latest News
- Guyana will not allow Venezuela to threaten sovereignty, territorial integrity – President Ali says
- ‘Remove your vessel from Guyana’s water’ – CARICOM tells Venezuela
- “We stand with you and Ukraine for as long as it may take”- UK PM tells Ukraine
- Pedal cyclist killed in Linden-Soesdyke accident
- Malawi temporarily bans all mineral exports to revamp rules
The Sports Hall belongs to Guyanese
By Edison Jefford
The Cliff Anderson Sports Hall was initially constructed as the premier indoor facility for multi-sports practice and competition. It was not intended for the slaying of wild animals or the storage of personal paraphernalia for Government officials.
Nigel Hinds
But unfortunately, decades after the facility was built to serve sport, it is being promulgated as a tool for hegemonic control. The locking out, debarring, and now limited access of the national basketball teams preparing for the Caribbean Championship deserves widespread condemnation from all stakeholders.
The Cliff Anderson Sports Hall does not belong to Director of Sport, Neil Kumar, or to the National Sports Commission (NSC). It belongs to all relevant indoor sports for which it was built and more importantly, it belongs to all tax-paying Guyanese.
There were three distinct recent occurrences that bring into focus serious mismanagement of the facility, which regrettably falls under the purview of the NSC– an arm of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport.
The first deterrent was the slaying of goats for the alleged wedding of Kumar’s son. Can you imagine, for one second, Madison Square Garden being transformed to an abattoir to facilitate a private function for Rudolph Giuliani?
The former Mayor of New York City would have been asked to demit office immediately (if the thought had even developed into action). But in Guyana, the country’s lone indoor facility was a storage place of carcass for a private function of Government official.
That official has a history of misusing the facility. Kaieteur Sport was privy to a private room at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall that is used as a storeroom for Kumar. It contains enough sport equipment to distribute to at least five schools in Georgetown. But instead, these things are lying in a room at the Sports Hall to rot.
Among these items are personal paraphernalia of the long-standing Director of Sport. There is no doubt that Kumar runs the facility as if it is his private space. The next two issues will solidify an incrementing belief that Kumar acts like he owns the Sports Hall.
During a mega basketball event a few weeks ago at the facility there was a power outage, which is also known as a ‘blackout’. This event was a fundraising event to help send Guyana’s national teams to the Caribbean Championships in the British Virgin Islands in July.
However, backward and morbid it might have been, Guyanese are used to blackouts. So, some of the patrons stuck around, waiting on the massive backup power engines just outside the western wall of the venue to restore lights to the facility in the midst of a major game. It never happened; the engines never came on, forcing several patrons to leave the venue.
The Sports Hall has a full-time manager, Bashur Khan, who is always in or around the facility, especially during major events. If Khan was there and could not get the generator working in a prompt manner, he perhaps received certain instructions.
Neil Kumar
Khan reports directly to Kumar. The only other imaginable reasons the new generator would not work is as a result of an absence of fuel or a mechanical failure. If the latter two are true, tax-payers dollars were again spent on a ‘white elephant’.
The third occurrence was the inhumane treatment of Guyana’s national basketball prospects with them being locked out of the facility, barring them from a practice session. Whatever the modalities of securing practice time at the venue, a national team should never have been made to endure such treatment as representatives of Guyana.
Kaieteur Sports reported on Friday that Kumar had to be telephoned to return normalcy and the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) has to pay for practice time at the venue. Where in the world is a national unit treated with such denigration?
Someone needs to remind Kumar that he does not own the Sports Hall and that it belongs to the people of Guyana who pay taxes. Sport associations and stakeholders must enforce a collective will on the Director of Sport, which reminds him of the real purpose of the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
The venue is there to serve sport, which in so many other parts of the world is a bridge that connects political and racial divides. But not in Guyana! After all, Guyana is unique in so many estranged ways that our national sport culture is perhaps extinct.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
A test of sovereignty
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- The United States, self-appointed arbiter of the world’s affairs, has once again... more
Why the U.S. Should Strengthen Trade Ties with the Caribbean
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- A rules-based international trading system has long been a foundation of global commerce,... more
Weekend Cartoon
