Save Face wid ah modern Netball Complex soon

Someone wrote ah lovely article last week on social media bigging up Netball and in particular “one of” SVG’s truly great netballers, Stella (Stellar) Boyea-Ashby, former captain of SVG’s

Netball Team. De writer also men-shunned ah number of other great players, and of course would have (inadvertently) missed quite ah few.

In de early days when Tn’T, Jamaica and SVG were de Big names in Carry-Beyond Netball, SVG produced ah number ah regional Netball Stars who were students at GHS (under fifteen)

who played for and toured internationally wid de West Indies team. Youths like Peggy Ince-

Hull (centre), Urel Campbell ( goal shooter), Shirley Browne- Windsboro (goal-keeper). Today Netball has grown tremendously.

De records show dey’s over 20 million people playing netball, in 117 countries, across five regions: Africa, Asia, Americas, Europe and Oceania.

Netball is SVG’s and ah would say de region’s No 1 female sport. In de Caribbean, dey are two major tournaments held annually, rotated among de islands. One is de Jean Pierre Caribbean Youth Netball Tournament, and de other is de OECS International Netball Series which is a

ranking tournament.

In SVG we’ve been hosting these tournaments since 1954 where netball matches would have been played at unacceptable facilities, way below international standards. Was not until 1978 when de Gloria Ballantyne Complex at Arnos Vale was built, things began to look up. Dis facility at

Arnos had four hard courts, was used also for Lawn Tennis and Basket Ball. Seating den and still is limited to three small timber stands dat have been weathering de storms since dey were

built in 1978. But we have hosted several inter-nah-shun-all Tournaments out dey. De Netball

Complex would have seen its best days during de administration led by de late Gloria Ballantyne as President of de SVG Netball Association from 1975 to 2004. After Ballantyne’s 30

year stint, de Arnos Vale Netball Complex would have seen its lowest level of maintenance and neglect, during de ULP Administration. De facility was an eye sore until Hurry-Cane Bear-ill did de honours wid ah blow-out.

But in contrast dey’s de Arnos Vale Cricket Grounds, de immediate adjacent near-bour of de

Netball Complex. Dis Cricketing facility is highly maintained and constantly refurbished. Flashing swimming pool and Electronic Scoreboard. De Cricket Gound was upgraded two years ago for ICC T 20 World Cup at AH cost of over EC $40 million. While all

dis extensive and expensive work was completed, de Netball Complex, dat is separated from de cricket field by a driveway, received annual minor repairs like leaking roof and replacing rotten boards. Terrible disrespect to our young sportsmen and women!

So it was ah surprise when only last month hearing an announcement from de incoming Ministry of Sports dat de Ministry would not be able to complete ah proper, should I say ah decent facility to host de 2026 Regional Netball Championships, scheduled for October 13 – 26 later dis year? Dey was ah missing piece of communication dat should have

been given to de Public Servants directly involved. Another Pull-it-tek-al game. Dem in office den were saying if we win-back we go fix it, if we lose, it’s not our problem. And dey lose!

But dis is an embarrassment to de SVG Netball Association and de Go-venom-mint and people of SVG, both of whom would have made commitments. Now dey got to

be more in de matter dan de pistle. We know de den ULP Go-venom-mint had

agreed to get de Complex ready foh de Tournament in one year. But was dey an estimate or allocation of funds foh dis project? No! was dey ah drawing of de proposed building? No! Does anybody from de building department know anything bout dis Project? Seems like No! Personally I feel de Ministry should have boldly taken on de challenge, dat would ah bin good foh dey profile. But, ah repeat but!

if no money was allocated in de beginning, herein lies ah problem. Ah feel embarrassed foh me country. And wid dat is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy