Source: www.guardian.co.tt
Things That Matter Column
At the beginning of the year there would have been high expectations for T&T national senior teams in a number of team sports. However, most national senior representatives underperformed. There were some exceptions but disappointment was the order of the day. Why was there lack of proper preparation and why did the national sport organisations (NSOs) fail to provide their national teams with all that was needed? Or was it just a case of shirking responsibility? Even where success occurred at the regional level, national team sports failed to make the next step up in class. It is accepted that team sports are an expensive proposition especially if the intention is to achieve success at the international level. The bill can run into millions. There are some who hold the view that it is more cost effective to channel funding into individual sports where the chances of success are more likely.
Is the answer as simple as that? Maybe it is? In the current environment where there are economic challenges, the reality is that sport is not a priority on the national agenda and government policy.
Funding sport is low down the totem pole. Forget the rhetoric; try arguing a case for sport as against crime, health and education. You will get run out of town. Intelligent people don’t discuss sport and recreation in the same sentence with the economy and finance. Right now high expectations seem to have quickly faded. One gets the sense that Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs, Anil Roberts, is under siege and operating with his hands firmly tied behind his back. This is not to suggest that sport should not be asked to make sacrifices. In difficult economic times all areas of national life must share the burden. But, it is hard not to feel that sport is made to carry a greater than necessary share of the burden.
Against such a background it is unrealistic and unreasonable to expect any of the team sports to achieve elite level performance targets on a shoe string budget. It cannot be done, not in the modern world of international sport. No amount of shuffling of the coaching deck of cards and players will help. Okay, so where are we? Sometimes, it may be better if we just admit that achieving sporting success is not a national priority. If we get it, great. Someone else can pay the bill but, T&T’S objective is not to be recognised as a sporting nation. Oil and gas, academic, health, technology, carnival capital but certainly not sport. Forget all the ole talk about what sport can do - the positive impact on healthy lifestyles, at risk youth, crime, communities, and social and civic pride. Forget that nonsense, Sport is simply a bunch of idle individuals indulging in a pastime. If they want to better themselves let them do it on their own and with their own money. There will always be people who prefer to sit and suffer in silence. Fire the coach and drop the players. It is nothing but a merry go round. As the iconic poet Bob Marley sang:
“Man to man is so unjust, Ya don't know who to trust, Your worst enemy could be your best friend, and your best friend your worse enemy.Some will hate you, pretend they love you now then behind they try to eliminate you hypocrites and parasites will come up and take a bite. And if your night should turn to day a lot of people would run away…”
One can have great sympathy for T&T Ministers of Sport; they constantly have to fight an uphill battle and lack of respect for what should be an integral aspect of culture and national life.
NOTE: Brian Lewis is the honorary secretary general of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee-www.ttoc.org.
The views expressed are not necessarily those of the TTOC.