“Facility Management – Observations and Information”

Apr 07, 2026 Sports

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Kaieteur Sports – Former West Indies and Guyana fast bowler Colin Croft shared his thoughts following the recent death of a cyclist, Colin Wilson, in an Easter event in Trinidad and Tobago. He highlighted facility management, sharing his observations and additional information.

(1) It is really sad to hear of the death of Trinidad & Tobago Masters Cyclist Colin Wilson while riding at the recent Easter 2026 international cycling event in T&T.

I had met him, in the early 2000s, when I had taken my Schwinn road cycle, to be fine-tuned at T&T cycle champion Gene Samuels’ cycling business.

I suspect that Colin Wilson’s carotid artery, to the head, was badly cut by that field fencing as he fell. Thus, the extensive bleeding, and death from loss of so much blood.  Those arteries run directly from the heart, on both sides of the neck, to the brain.

Interestingly, when a karate chop is administered, in competition, or for real violence, the hardened edge of the palm / hand actually temporarily smashes onto those same carotid arteries, thus causing an instant stoppage of the blood from the heart to the brain, to effect an instant moment of unconciousness.

It happens much in boxing too.

Re: Champion Boxer Mike Tyson’s demolition of Trevor Berbick in 1986.  Thus the rest of the body falls like a very heavy collapsing tent.

(2)    This cycling incident, sad as it has been, suggests VERY POOR Facility Management overall.

Because I have both much training at airlines and extensive experiences at UWI SPEC Sports, and Caribbean Airlines, and Delta Airlines, I think I know a bit about Facility Management.

I am betting that no-one even thought of those old corrugated fences at Skinner Park as being “deadly weapons”.

NOTE:  Proper “bounce-off” paddings, around the complete, entire arena, should ALWAYS be used where especially excessive speed is present.

Do you ever notice those “bounce-off” barricades in indoors athletics and indoor cycling events, in real professional settings, around the world?

Formula 1 car racing and NASCAR car racing probably do it best, to date, and yet, they TOO occasionally have very bad accidents and sometimes deaths.

Re:  Dale Earnhardt Sr. high speed accident / death in 2001, at the Daytona 500.

You might remember, ages ago, I suggested that many sports, including tennis and soccer, were “too open”, and that any disgruntled fan could simply jump over a short fence, to attack a player whom the attacker thought to be “not a favorite”.

That thought was aired on cricket commentary back in 1993, just before Monica Sales was attacked in Germany.

Facility Management is a very specific arm of Mechanical Engineering.

Most people take the practice of Facility Management for granted, but specific Facility Managers MUST ALWAYS be appointed to fully inspect, and if / when / where necessary, CHANGE the status quo, for PROPER personnel safety.

ALWAYS people wonder about costs. There are no costs where life is concerned. All it takes is one death to understand realities.

A big part of my portfolios at DAL was to make sure that all airplane parking gates were SAFE FOR USE.

It takes about two hours, at 03:00am, at MCO, to complete that, every morning, for the “Gate Walks” – actually driving a tug with massive underside “magnet bars”, and walking the gates / airplane parking spaces too, checking out EVERYTHING, picking up even very small metal objects, over the twelve gates that DAL uses at MCO.

Can you really imagine a two-inch nail being lifted and propelled by a jet engine blast?

That nail then becomes a very high speed projectile that could, and have, in the past, kill.

That safety check was an on-going practice for EVERY hour of daily operations at MCO.

Mashramani in Guyana, and Carnival in T&T, and everywhere else, are very good, or bad, examples too.

Almost every year one hears of music trucks hitting / killing revellers, patrons or lookers-on.

Nobody cares enough to spend the money to use the RIGHT professionals, to institute the correct, SAFE practices.

(3)  In my very first Test game in Australia in 1979-80, I ran into the fence at the Wooloon Gabba –  “The Gabba” – early in WI’s 1st innings bowling, and, putting down my hands to save me propelling over the fence, trying to save a boundary at the backward square leg position, I badly cut the palm of my right hand on that surrounding corrugated fencing.

That cut probably should have taken a few stitches. No time for that back then though.

Fortunately for all, our Australian trainer, Dennis Waight, was sufficiently trained and experienced enough, to properly strap that injury, to allow me to bowl relatively properly (match figures: 53 overs, 9 maidens, 186 runs, 4 wickets) in that drawn 1st Test.

“The Gabba” back then the best “batting” track in Australia.

If you ever see a video / photograph of me bowling in that 1st Test AUS v WI in 1979-80 at Brisbane, you would see that my right hand / palm is very heavily strapped.

The fences at the cricket grounds do not come that much into play anymore, since most cricket grounds now have a “buffer” space – about 10 to 15 feet – between the boundary ropes and the actual fencing, which are also mostly padded nowadays anyway.

That is very good foresight and Facility Management.

Back in 1979-1980, the boundary was the fence itself.

Have you ever seen a vehicle stuck, with one of its wheels down inside a manhole or culvert, in a parking lot, perhaps just outside a banking business?

That is as a result of very poor planning, Civil / Mechanical Engineering and Facility Management.

Facility Management is an aspect of sports, and in life generally, that is badly underestimated.

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• Colin Croft, Facility Management, Former Cricketer, West Indies

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