Bite the bullet!

There is always a time when unpopular decisions have to be made, but when they are made in good faith, most often, they prove to be the correct decision.{{more}}

Here, I speak specifically to tournament organizers and national associations about really and truly becoming tough on teams, clubs and players who continuously water down their competitions.

It was heart wrenching to learn recently of two tournament finals being decided by the default route.

Over the past two weeks, the ASCO Softball Cricket Competition Female Division was decided by teams not showing up in the finals.

What was also sad in this instance was that the offending team ASCO is a team that represents the organization responsible for staging the competition.

It is also very painful to note that another such embarrassment came in the Digicel National Netball Club Tournament, when C and R Enterprises Sion Hill failed to turn up for their knock out final last week Monday against French Verandah X-Ceed.

Reports are that the Sion Hill team could not field enough players at the scheduled start of the finals, and a request was made for a grace period but to no avail.

Interestingly, both X- Ceed and Sion Hill have two Executive members in President Godfrey Harry and Games Secretary Cheryl Alexander, as lead persons in the two outfits, respectively. Alexander is also an active player.

These affiliations complicate the task of firm decision making.

But this was not all. Several matches went by the default route as was promised by the organizers. They followed through on their decision to debar teams/clubs from participation in the tournament after they had defaulted two matches.

In fact, those who felt the wrath of the punitive actions were Hill View Two, Inter Secondary Two, Inter Secondary Under-16, KCCU Progressors, and Eveready Future Stars.

It is surprising to learn that schools’ teams defaulted as one would have thought that at that level, there would have been some direct control, given what is embedded in the institutional framework of the schools’ set up. Although it has already happened, it should not be allowed to prosper.

What occurs in the national competitions is a continuation of what takes place at the various area competitions, so the trail is followed to the detriment of sport.

Already, netball’s standing is not good, and in fact, St. Vincent and the Grenadines no longer has ranking status, so the quicker we fix our house, the quicker the sport will see some light of day.

As I have said previously, let us not substitute quality for quantity.

It is absolutely pointless to have over forty teams at the opening ceremony, with glitz and glamour, then at the closing ceremony, only a handful of them are present. Then next year, the process is repeated.

But they are not all alone, as other national sporting disciplines are victims of this disrespect.

Last year, in the final of the Bottlers Division One cricket competition, ASCO did not show up for the second day of the finals, handing Police One an easy title and thus promotion to this year’s RBTT Premier Division.

So, what then should we do?

In the case of Netball, one has to bite the bullet and get to the core of the matter, as banning the teams does not help. The same clubs/teams can repeat this next year, and get the same treatment. So what, they say.

Those players must be made to pay individually for their transgressions and be debarred from competing at the national level for some time. Hit them where it hurts.

In reviewing the 2010 tournament, Harry and company should look seriously at reducing the number of participating teams to manageable sizes, to cater to the number of match officials available in order to prevent burn out and subsequently loss of interest.

Also, some teams should only be allowed to compete in area competitions, those who only want a “sweat”.

No sweat, though, or importance for the “Mound” at the Sion Hill Playing Field.