Of disdain, disrespect and damning

Once again, the Vincentian public, more so those who love sports, have been treated to an overdose of disrespect by way of information pertaining to the performance or more accurately, the non-performance of national representatives.{{more}}

Let us first look at this country’s outing to the Central American and Caribbean Games.

Except for tit bits of information, nothing substantial has been made public about the performances of the various representatives who carried the nation’s flag.

We received some reports of the performance of the Female Basketball team, and that is about all most persons who follow sports know.

There was much noise made by the Executive of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Basketball Federation when the team was in a bind, being short of cash to make the trip in the first instance to the Centro Championships.

Media personnel were asked to use their respective channels to urge people to assist the team in making the Puerto Rico trip.

The team went, yet there has not been a release as to what transpired.

Is it a case of ingratitude or did the good fellows just go for a joy ride?

Anyway, this sort of behaviour was foretold in the Holy Bible, as Jesus Christ cleansed ten lepers and only one returned to say thanks.

But there is more than meets the eye, as the jostling for overseas trips has been the norm as the recompense for being part of associations. It has been known to rock several national associations in the past. Surely, there have been rumblings in some organizations recently as some executive members became disgruntled about their “trip” assignment. Therein lies the importance of those in charge.

Putting that aside, it is high time that representative teams on overseas assignments put someone in place to ensure that the Vincentian perspective is relayed to the various media houses directly or through a contact person of the respective national associations.

Not only must it be done, but with urgency.

The recent Americas Federation of Netball Associations (AFNA) Qualifiers held in St. Lucia showed this up, as the reporting from the assignment was replete with misinformation and often carried a home town bias.

But the biggest slap for Vincentians was from this country’s national Under-17 male Football team that went to Suriname for the qualifiers and played against Barbados, Grenada and the host country.

Not even the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation’s website, www.svgff.com, has any information on the team’s performance.

The new website was launched July 10, and the SVGFF’s Executive promised it would be updated daily. A promise is really a comfort to a fool.

If one were to depend on their website, then one would think that the 2010 FIFA World Cup final was the latest thing to happen in Football.

Since the launch, little has been done to improve on the information on the website. In fact, the home page looks more like an archival piece, a month after the official launch.

Likewise, a delegation from the Executive of the SVGFF went to South Africa recently for the FIFA Congress. Did you know that? What were the significant decisions taken at the Congress? Were there any openings that would affect St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Football directly or indirectly?

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Guys, you have a social and moral responsibility to the nation for your stewardship of Football and must let the public be aware of your activities.

Oops, didn’t some youngsters go to the CAC Juvenile championships in Santo Domingo early last month?

What were their performances like? Your guess is as good as mine!

I am still calling for the total removal of the mound at the Sion Hill Playing Field.