Sports View by Freddie Kissoon The ownership of the Amazon Warriors and political power

Aug 31, 2014 Sports

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Mr. Neil Kumar, in the Saturday edition (August 30, 2014) of this newspaper, sought to belittle the people in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) that awarded the championship to the Barbados Trident.
What one must understand in reading Kumar’s poorly written, arid piece is that politics is more behind the protest of the owners of the Amazon Warriors. This argument forms the essential point of my article but a digression is important.
I was nonplussed when I saw a column by Mr. Neil Kumar in the Kaieteur News. There are many reasons for this. First, Mr. Kumar is a member of both the board of directors and the editorial board of the Guyana Chronicle. Mr. Kumar is also on the editorial board of the Mirror newspaper of the PPP. Mr. Kumar then has access to two newspapers.
Secondly, he sought column space in a newspaper that his party and government would wish to have it removed from Guyana’s social landscape. I might include the Stabroek News too. Both independent dailies face daily hostility from Mr. Kumar’s party and government.
Thirdly, this columnist knows that Mr. Kumar belongs to a cabal of hardliner within the PPP that is extremely hostile to critics of the Guyana Government. Against this background, it is hypocritical that he should seek space in the Kaieteur News to ventilate his misplaced anger at the administrators of the CPL.
Before I get back to the substantial issue, two questions need to be posed to Mr. Kumar as Director of Sports. When the three publicly owned swimming pools are going to be opened to the public?
Castellani pool is used exclusively by members of the governing elites. Colgrain pool is only for members of swimming clubs. And the Aquatic Centre is for training. In response to a picket outside the Aquatic Centre two years ago carried out by Malcolm Harripaul representing APNU; David Patterson, Michael Carrington and Gerhard Ramsaroop representing the AFC; and me and Mark Benschop demanding the Aquatic Centre be made available to the public, the Minister of Sports, Frank Anthony is quoted in the media as saying that the object holding up the availability of the centre is the employment of a life guard.
After two years, he cannot find one. Well I can secure one of the most experienced lifeguards. I will wait for the Minister’s response. The other question that Kumar needs to be unambiguous about is whether he did indeed allow the Sports Hall to be used as a temporary abattoir for the slaughtering of animals for the wedding celebration of his son.
Mr. Edison Jefford, Sport Journalist of the Kaieteur News wrote about that in the sports section of this newspaper and there has been no response from Kumar. The owners of the Amazon Warriors consist of one of the richest men in Guyana whose empire is closely tied up with power connections.
There is also the strong possibility that the former political boss may be one of the owners. Ramon Gaskin, analyst and commentator on a television programme with Chris Ram referred to the former political boss as a very rich man. Where did he get that wealth from? Could it be from income from public office? Is that possible?
The owners of the Amazon Warriors cannot believe that a person or group in the CPL could be so bold as to frown on these financial and political elites in Guyana. After all, these elites could do whatever they want in this country. They have so much power in Guyana that they were psychologically devastated when they found out that they were not perceived as untouchables by the administrators of the CPL.
The protest against the decision has more to do with pride, pomposity, hubris and hauteur than the actual input that went into the final award. The people who own the Amazon Warriors are so accustomed to having their own way that they forgot for just one fatal moment that the arbitration was not within their jurisdiction.
That the people who were to decide the fate of the Warriors were not their little Guyanese underlings but professional administrators who couldn’t be bothered with rich men and political bosses who own the country of Guyana.
Kumar is his usual uneducated self (remember he didn’t know what the ABC countries were and instead of naming America, Britain and Canada he identified Argentina, Brazil and Chile –what ignorance).
We must remind readers that the same Kumar told the media that the hours of use of the Colgrain pool were reduced so as to preserve it. And he also told the press in justification of not making it available to the citizens of Guyana that people must realize that they must have a shower before they use facility.
We are told by Kumar than a petition has been started to get the CPL decision reversed. Kumar thinks that the owners of the Warriors are in charge of the CPL. No. They are in charge of poor souls in Guyana that are happy to be fools and slaves.
The petition will be ignored, to be signed by people like the owners of the Warriors themselves, President Ramotar and those too ignorant to understand that the world don’t give a damn about certain rich men in a God-forsaken country.

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