THE EDITOR: It is high time we turn a new leaf in sports.
It is either we return to the days when we played bat and ball, ping pong, take away (netball), kicked ball (football) or played rounders (baseball) for the joy of movement and friendly competition; or we recognise that serious change must take place to face the rigours of global competition.
Sports administrators are leg-weary and mentally famished, so when they peep outside the box they realise their inabilities and blame other factors for pending failures. We cannot continue to hide behind mediocrity.
A five-year strategic sports plan inclusive of performance indicators and benchmarks, strong sources of finance and with motivated administrators who are goal-oriented and focused on the holistic development of our athletes is what is needed.
From their rocking chairs, administrators are trying to light the Olympic cauldron but would not admit they do not have the capacity to do so. Physical education is only a subject in school for CXC.
There seems to be a chasm between the competence of administrators and the cravings of grassroots athletes. The TTOC, bearing the banner of Olympism, proudly rewards the preparation and podium finishes of elite athletes, but refuses to help with lower-level training and the formation of athletic nurseries in and among our youths.
After the inspiration phase what is next? Where is the pathway?
Whatever happened to the data obtained on that recent trip to Jamaica to fact-find on how that country churns out Olympic-quality athletes? Was this another grandcharge? Another joyride and waste of taxpayer funds? How many coaches are in possession of this data?
SporTT is a mighty human superstructure, overpopulated with knowledgeable professionals but dubious in experience.
Is this a case of the candle costing more than the funeral? The focus, it seems, is to be on employing personnel rather than producing athletes.
As bureaucracy chokes the organisation only individuals with novel ideas remain unbridled to propel sports forward and for natural talent to blossom.
Sport cannot wait until there is a perfect structure.
With sponsorship already entombed by these lethargic organisations, innovative ideas will be consigned to the dump, further reducing the capacity to produce better results in sports.
Government’s investment in sport could be more efficiently managed. Programmes must state clear objectives, the target market, the coaches, the pathway, the cost, a time line for the output and not just for people to be brand ambassadors. Only then can we measure the rate of return and degree of satisfaction for the effort and money spent.
The achievement of success must not be an idle boast blowing in the wind. It must be something we can quantify and measure.
LENNOX SMITH
Couva
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