Letter to the Sports Editor...Beginning a dialogue on sports revival

Letter to the Sports Editor…Beginning a dialogue on sports revival

May 08, 2016 Sports

Dear Editor,
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce… these words written by Karl Marx have too often been proved prophetic, Our Nation is moving towards a repetition, seemingly inexorably and on an unseen set of rails, we are in an economic recession and people are struggling to survive, the political class seem more intent on scoring imaginary points in the frivolous game they call the national assembly.
Each of us has a part to play in effecting real change; it requires setting aside our egos and penchant for criticism without offering pragmatic solutions. In this spirit I will admit to being harshly critical of the Government’s attempt to host the Caribbean Premiere League finals event in return for a hefty payment, my writings on that issue did not offer concrete alternatives, I do so now.
The President in his speech at the Guyana Olympic Awards annual dinner showed an admirable grasp of our nation’s sporting history and hinted at his vision of the way forward, I would like to build on the points made by His Excellency and suggest that the sporting fraternity become proactive in presenting a solution to the various issues affecting sport development in Guyana.
The first area of business is annual allocation of funding to the National Governing Bodies (NGB) of the various sporting disciplines, my solution to the chaotic system that was inherited by the current administration, is to allocate an equal funding amount to all member bodies of the GOA annually, NGB’s would then be able to plan events based on the known amount of funding available.
The GOA would become an active adviser on events, NGB’s would present budgets for events which would be perused by experienced event managers at the GOA for possible areas of saving. The GOA would pay bills for NGB’s therefore becoming a major purchaser of event items and possibly being in the position to secure discounted prices based on volume purchases, we all use the same items, and the power of collective bargaining can be harnessed for our benefit. This is but a brief outline of how this arrangement would work, it does not replace the National Sports Commission who will continue to serve the needs of the people in sport through additional funding of NGB activities and non-affiliated community sport events and persons.
The second area of concern is sporting facilities, maintenance of existing ones, improvement of basic grounds and creation of new ones. In this area we are woefully behind where we should be, fifty years in as a nation and we are yet to truly acknowledge the role sport plays in nation building. In my humble opinion, it is the cornerstone upon which our nation will be built, the desired unity of our six peoples first occurs on sporting fields and then filters through to daily life, the term ‘level playing field’ is not accidental, it is factual.
The Caribbean credits the West Indies cricket team with forging its identity, to have been at Bourda Cricket Ground during the Hooper/Chanderpaul era was to witness something really special about us as a people, it is well known that Hooper feigned illness to provide opportunity for Chanderpaul, as politics divide us we count on sport to unite us, currently we are experiencing an imbalance, our sporting heroes have aged and moved out of the active arena while the older politicians are more active than ever. I urge that the GoG meet with each NGB and seek to treat each sport’s desire to have a world class facility to call home as a National priority.
There are other issues to address and those can be done in the fullness of time, the areas outlined above are the ones that will have immediate impact on our quality of life, sport can be back in schools by September 2016 in a meaningful way, the NGB’s can meet under the auspices of the GoA and target at least two schools in every region for development programmes each. With careful planning and cooperation we can do much more, we owe it to our youth to try new ways as the old have failed.
Let us heed the advice of His Excellency President David A. Granger, let us cooperate and make Guyana great.
Robin Singh
President
Guyana Baseball league Inc.

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Letter to the Sports Editor…Beginning a dialogue on sports revival

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