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Tuesday, July 7, 2009

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Caribbean sports image suffers a blow - Part one of a two-part series By FRED STURRUP ~ NG Associate Editor ~ frederick@nasguard.com: The Caribbean sports family was hit with a devastating body blow over the weekend when Trinidad & Tobago officials announced that the proposed inaugural Caribbean Games had been canceled. They gave the reason that "there was too great a risk of spreading swine flu" since a group of volleyball players from that Caribbean island as well as Suriname players tested positive for the H1N1 flu. It is a sad situation for the region's sports picture. The reason given, if the facts are as stated, ought not be questioned, but the truth of the matter is that the games were in trouble from the very outset. Early in the process, soon after the official games' office was opened, it became apparent that there was nothing in place to ensure that the prime athletes of the region commit to appearances. That being the case, many of my regional sports colleagues and I, harbored doubts. If it came off, it would be a watered down affair in terms of top talent. The scenario begged an important question. How significant would the games be if not attended by the Caribbean elite? To verify the aforementioned point and one that I have emphasized several times in this space, a release out of Port-of-Spain, Trinidad carried a very telling paragraph. "Trinidad's double Olympic silver medallist Richard 'Torpedo' Thompson and rising 400 meter runner Renny Quow along with the Cuban boxers and Dominican Republic's volleyball players were expected to be the biggest stars at the games." Goodness, if that was it, then the games were surely doomed whether or not there was a swine flu scare. The organizers were not on form. Once again, a big opportunity to make a positive statement about Caribbean sports organization and administration has been lost. With agents of the Caribbean elite athletes and in some cases on an individual basis, contact should have been made and appearance enticements made. Given the competition climate with Europe annually being the financial bedrock of the world's prime athletes, it was nonsense to expect our top flight athletes to opt out of opportunities for appearance fees and nice financial packages from every event on the European circuit to take part in the Caribbean Games on the bases of pure patriotism. This mindset is ludicrous. I hold no blame against the region's finest who refused to commit to the games. What is so embarrassing is the strong-held view by some key Latin sports leaders, that in the English Caribbean there is not the capacity to stage events of the magnitude of the games, by ourselves. The swine flu has been used as the reason. Perhaps that's as good an excuse as any. The bottom line is, however, that the organizing committee seemed out of its depth. The overall result is quite damaging to Caribbean sports. (The second part to this series follows in tomorrow's Nassau Guardian). Tuesday, June 23, 2009