WINLOTT GAMES- Not an encouraging experience

The young sports people of St Vincent and the Grenadines and those sport lovers in the general population must have been very disappointed in the outcome of the recent Winlott Games, the annual contest between young athletes from the Windward Islands. Despite having the advantage of the Diamond

Stadium and its vastly improved facilities, the local athletes not only placed last in the athletics competition but also replicated the wooden spoon placing in the overall competition.

There has been no shortage of criticism especially in the social media. Even Sports Minister Orando Brewster, in closing the Games, expressed disappointment with the performance of the local contingent, though he neglected, perhaps wisely, to offer any possible explanation, preferring a promise of an improved showing next year.

SEARCHLIGHT’s Sports columnist, Rohan Thomas was not so shy of facing the facts as he identified them, and he gave a scathing analysis in last Friday’s paper which seemed to generate some support among readers. Thomas unabashedly placed the blame for the embarrassing performance of the local contingent on what he called the five Ps. He named them as “preparation,planning,politics,personality and professionalism”, (or lack of it).

In relation to preparation and planning, despite some high-powered ads in the media, somehow, judging by the rather disappointing national athletics championships, held just the week before, one could almost sense, at least where athletics was concerned, that all was not right. The atmosphere just did not inspire confidence.

Most worryingly though, not just for the Games, but for the country as a whole, was the columnist’s assertion of “party political bias” in the administration of the Games.

In fact, the column stated that “it was clearly pronounced that execution of the Games was primarily for personnel who were supportive of the government apparatus of the day”. This is a serious charge to make, yet it is not the first time, not a singular circumstance, in which such accusations have been made.

Anyone vaguely familiar with politics in St Vincent and the Grenadines would know that this is a disease which has been infecting our body politic for almost four decades now and getting worse. As a result, sycophancy in many quarters has been tolerated, and encouraged to the extent that it has become a disease that undermines the very principles of planning, preparation and professionalism so necessary for success.

It is not just in the administration of sport, but rightly or wrongly, increasingly in the administration of the country itself. It leads to an undermining of projects and programmes which can benefit the country even more than they do, because of these failures. It leads to what we call a “turn off” of people who can make a valuable contribution to the development of the country and worse, gives the wrong message. So, if there happens to be a change of aspiration, those who support the new administration come to expect such favouritism. It is an issue which we must discuss openly and frankly and resolve to tackle for the good of our country. To the football and netball teams which emerged ahead of their competitors in the Games, congratulations.