Just some tit-bits

This week, On Target has chosen to take a peek at several sporting issues, local, regional and international, for us to chew on, as the we are all emerging from uncertainty to some semblance of possibilities.

Among the local issues is our general outlook towards sports. An outlook that at times paints a picture of despair, gloom and indifference.

So, as we roll into the upcoming general elections, sports and the nation’s youth must be elevated to some level of prominence by the party the electorate chooses to lead St Vincent and the Grenadines for the next five years.

Among the musts, has to be a thorough policy on what we want out of sports. Should we just be engaging in sporting activities just for the sake of having sports?

Naturally as well, must come the provision of upgraded sporting facilities, namely some indoor arena where multi-court sports can take place.

Then there must be the setting up of an entity to make sure our national sporting associations which get funding from government or through the National Lotteries Authority (NLA), are accountable and transparent.

Also on the must do list, has to be a national programme that channels the sporting talents of young people, and move that talent towards success.

There has to be also a system in place for youngsters who are adept in sports and have the prerequisite academic acumen, that they be afforded opportunities to advance their talent, as well as their academics.

Linked to this, has to be the creation of some sports institutions, whereby sports must be the main subject area for the students enrolled there.

This is with the reality that many of our young sportsmen and women, whose main focus and strengths are in the various sporting disciplines, but come up short when it comes to the academics.

The latter has been fashioned, tried and tested in some countries and has borne fruits of success.

Meanwhile, the recently renamed Windward Islands Cricket Board (WICB) has ratified term limits of presidents’ tenure.

This is highly commendable, as it has shifted the governance structure, overturning what occurred previously, when one person can be in that position for a lifetime.

The WICB’s decision follows on what has already been enacted with the SVG Cricket Association Inc, which has gone that route.

Shifting across the seas, to what is taking place in Trinidad and Tobago’s football.

For the past months, that country’s football has descended into a battle of wits, personal agenda, vendetta and the courts, with no clear-cut winner in sight.

What we have learnt though, that FIFA’s bullying can be challenged and in the case of Trinidad and Tobago, show up the region’s legal intelligence.

Whilst their situation has a lot to digest and critically dissect, what is the message for sports here in St Vincent and the Grenadines, is that we have to at all times administer sports, especially at the national level, above board.

But such drama, court battles, pleas of compromise and fears of being sanctioned can be prevented, if the proper administrative structures are the order of the day.

The region and the football world is awaiting the outcome of the Trinidad and Tobago saga.

Going wider, the coronavirus has brough into being the use of bio-secure arrangements for some international sporting events to be staged.

This has opened up many ramifications for us in the Caribbean, as we neither have the facilities nor the financial resources to have such “bubbles”, to host major sporting events, should this coronavirus pandemic prolong.

It could spell disaster for us, as our limitations all round can have debilitating and ripple effects on the socio-economic conditions in our region.

Hopefully, we may not have to reach the worst stage, and that things will pan out sooner than later, and that normal programming will be resumed.