Excellence through teamwork

The time is right, more than ever, for the various sporting set-ups here in St Vincent and the Grenadines to adopt the motto of the Eastern Caribbean Group of Companies (ECGC), “Excellence Through Teamwork.”

Overtime, several factors have promoted the need for such embodiment into the local psyche of those who play, administrate, sponsor, promote and attend the various activities that make up the whole of sports.{{more}}

The global financial situation, which has inevitably trickled down into our streams, is among the push factors for a pooling of efforts and resources, whilst maximizing the efforts all around.

Such has been the grip, that units which participate in competitions, whether it be at the community or national level, are hard pressed to fund their way. As a result, many depend on a shrinking private sector and benevolent individuals to get by, who, in some cases, are themselves hardly in a better off position.

Even at the schools’ level, the crunch is in place, as some of the competitions have not attracted sponsorship, leaving the Ministry of Education to bear the brunt of the expenses.

And, as a natural course, there has been a cut back on trophies and awards in some instances, short-changing the youngsters for their efforts.

Many resort to the National Lotteries Authority, which was set up to support sports and culture, so now, that institution has found itself going beyond its mandate and has now become an agent for other national causes, thus reducing the financial pie.

Following in line is the need for the upkeep and demand of facilities, which in the main stops with government, which has to do the juggling act with other social commitments.

Added to the woes is the attraction of other aspects of life, which sometimes relegate sports to a place lower down the rungs of acceptance.

The continuum leads to our sporting disciplines being underachievers and a decline in standards.

It therefore advocates for sports organizations to reassess their positions and emulate an emerging business practice, which is to merge.

When one takes a closer look at the spread of the disciplines practised here, it reveals much of the same, doing the same, with the same objectives, but without the optimization of the inputs.

Cases in point are the very major national competitions-football, cricket and netball, as they continue to spread themselves thin, preferring quantity to quality.

These national competitions are infested by mere playing units, rather than structured clubs with semblances of an organization.

So, the start last weekend of the Premier Divi-sion of the National Cric-ket Tournament, where the teams were ill-prepared, not properly uniformed and short of players, vindicates this discussion.

It is pointless having a large number of teams in competition, when they are filled with substandard players and inadequate personnel to provide that administrative heft.

What this does too is give the constituents false hopes and inflated expectations that they are good enough to be part of a wider national exercise, when they are only fit to expend their talents at the community level.

As a blessing, there is that steady falling off of teams participating in the National Netball Tourn-ament, which can only serve in the best interest of the sport, as only serious players would find themselves on show.

The time has come for many of the sporting units involved in the three aforementioned disciplines to carefully examine themselves and their real reason for existence.

Instead of being forced out by the several debilitating elements, it may be better served for these playing units to collapse and form strong clubs, comprising committed personnel.

Already, the signposts have been mounted, as football’s governing body FIFA has sent out that prescription for clubs in the region, inclusive of St Vincent and the Grenadines to acquire all the trappings to become licensed clubs.

It therefore stands that there should be a team approach from here on, if St Vincent and the Grenadines, is to move forward in sports.

The challenge for us to do well first up at the regional level is mounting, as others are getting by, leaving us to trail.