LOCAL SPORTt is like a person in an abusive relationship. You give your all and get very little respect in return.
Imagine interested parties spent over $200 000 to buy a surface to use in the restoration work of the AstroTurf at Wildey and it is still in the Bridgetown Port catching dust because the duties are exorbitant!
It was reported that it will take about $45 000 in duties to get it out unless the relevant Government ministry waives some or all of this figure.
Meantime, hockey, which has been a faithful servant, is restricted to a facility that can only accommodate seven-a-side competitions. Honestly, I think the Barbados Hockey Federation should be grateful to the authorities at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies for allowing them to use the facility because it is better than nothing at all, but clearly it seems to be a case where there was no urgency to help hockey because there was an alternative.
Now they have made a giant step forward, it is a shame that they have been stalled when better could be done. It has been about two months that the surface arrived from Argentina and what makes matters worse is that there was a big clean-up at Wildey to facilitate the laying of the new turf.
There has been no hockey there for five yearsand that has delivered some savage blows to the Hockey Festival because most foreign teams don’t want to play on grass. In terms of sports tourism, hockey has paid its dues many times over and deserved a much better deal. Clearly, tourism is our business, but action still speaks louder than words.
It is quite obvious that with the track and field season not far away, schools and organisations will be scrambling to find an alternative to the National Stadium to conduct their business because, for security reasons, there’s no public access to the stands.
We have to be in agreement on the security question, but we can also be in concert with the deafening silence from the powers that be on what the next move will be in restoring the facility to its full function.
I believe money is the big issue, but I think patrons would feel a little better if some assurance is given that there are concrete plans to redevelop a place that was allowed to become run down over time. Both political administrations are to blame, so the temptation to point fingers on either side of the fence should be avoided.
The long and short is that we have reached a point that shows disrespect for sports and sportsmen.
Wait a minute, though; If we were to go next door and look in the gym where the national boxers train, you would have to wonder when the ceiling was likely to fall in and probably injure them.
Moral impetus
It’s been like this for ages, but it seems nobody cares, nobody thinks upgrading that gym is important, but we still expect the boxers to win medals at every major tournament.
This is not to say that improved facilities will automatically generate medals, but the ambience of surroundings that are pleasant and comfortable could contribute to shaping your mindset and raising self-esteem. It could provide moral impetus for those who lack drive and motivation.
We will be without the Wildey Gymnasium for more than a year when remedial work starts next April, but how much will it be missed by sporting groups when under normal circumstances they had limited access to practise and compete there and did they receive a significant reduction in rental fees when compared with those given non-sporting organisations?
Sports administrators cried out for relief, but the constant chorus coming from the authorities was that the Gymnasium had to be cost effective and had to make enough money to help with its maintenance.
It’s not, though, like the sporting bodies who use the facility regularly make the kind of revenue to pay their bills in full. Some form of subsidisation had to form part of the plot for them to be current.
Is it true that we had to negotiate to get uniforms and gear for some of our representatives when they reached Canada for this year’s Pan American Games?
If it is true, how embarrassing it must have been for our athletes to be placed in that position? You have to wonder why this process wasn’t concluded before the team left Barbados?
Indeed, recently the Weekend Nation reported that there was a dire shortage of coaches at the National Sports Council, the organisation that has the greatest responsibility for training in primary schools and communities.
It was very interesting to realise that cricket, the national sport, was the area hardest hit by the shortage, particularly in a term when the annual Herman Griffith/Guardian Life Primary Schools Competition will be staged.
So what’s the real reason why sports get such a shabby deal when we keep hearing how it helps to keep the social fabric intact by having young people constructively engaged and reducing the possibility of them going astray?
Not only that, we are always reminded that it is a huge money spinner that can benefit both individual and country.
Honestly, the way sport is mistreated in Bim, my only conclusion is that those who should know better derive misplaced satisfaction in making sport at sports when with just a tad more seriousness our sportsmen and women can reach a much higher standard than currently obtains in many of the disciplines.
• Andi Thornhill is an experienced, award-winning sports journalist.
