That slow, painful death of sports

The continued suffering of sports in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) is fast-forwarding its slow painful death.

But critically, the policy makers are lining up to be the pall bearers and the first to jostle to read the eulogy.

Sports is being infected by a chronic disorder of malaise, transmitted by those who have to make the decisions and spend the purse.

The nonchalance and disregard for the sports loving public of Barroualllie and its environs by denying them the use of the Keartons hard court for the better part of two years is testimony of the growing uncaring attitude by those who push the buttons.

Undoubtedly, that type of blatant shunning of the people of that community is one for the record books.

No excuse can be issued for the drawn out processes, shifting of blame and ‘send the fool a little further’ tale, which have left the regular users of that facility seeking refuge elsewhere.

It has to be painful for netball teams from the Barrouallie area to have to journey to Sion Hill and to Richland Park to get involved in the sport.

Then, can those who mount the podiums at community and national functions really look at the youth population and say that they care and love them?

Nothing can be more unnerving than for petty reasons and acts of spite, that a facility such as the hard court in Keartons must be left to ruins and no one has the will to get the matter resolved.

Hopefully, someone will wake up and realize that such actions only help to gnaw away at the true worth of sports to the community and national development.

But if that does not come soonest, then anything thereafter would be a gloss of pretence.

Similarly, a few miles further down on the Leeward coast, there is still silence on the commissioning of the Cumberland Playing Field, which saw activity late 2015.

Again, the people of North Leeward, and by extension SVG, were looking forward to this added playing facility, as a national endeavour is needed to provide sporting outlets and opportunities, especially to a yearning young population.

Things with the Cumberland Playing Field have reached the point of being forgotten, so that no type of fanfare, pomp, panache and trappings can erode the long wait for its commissioning.

These are just two of the struggles and battles that sports administrators and sports people in those locales have to grit their teeth and endure.

But the causative agents of the demise in sports here are too unresponsive to one another.

Whilst the said authoritative personnel are dishing out the harmful substances to sports, these pathogens are also fighting amongst themselves.

One would have thought that the pursuit of ego that once gripped some of the ministries of government was dead and buried.

This, though, is not the case, as still in 2017, the turf war and chest thumping are again in train, while sports at all level journeys move quickly to the point of no return.

Also we are indeed scraping the bottom of the barrel, when we have government officials holding some national sporting progress to ransom for political reasons and fear that others, whom they perceive to be their opponents, will get the glory.

They too are quick to unleash their fangs of venom on persons who dare to be critical of their operations and object to their incompetence.

This type of self-centred approach and party political excursions only impede the already slow progress which we find sports traversing in the last decade or so.

Can we get ourselves out of this rot, where sports and most of all, people’s development, take precedence over anything else?

Are we able to see beyond the portfolios, the clout, the prestige (which like all things in life are temporary), the malevolence, and get sports in St Vincent and the Grenadines going again?

Can this generation see through the faults, failures and misfortunes and remain steadfast amidst the myriad of problems sports in this blessed land?

Will we find a new breed of policy makers who can come out with a cure for the many ailments that have afflicted sports and the infections of its psyche?

No matter what side of the fence one wants to sit, or go the middle road and sit on the fence itself, the prospects of any turnabout in the way things are down seem grim and dour.

Sports, with the best hopes, aspirations and optimism for a revival of sorts, looks destined to depart this active life with many mourners and with an estate of untouched and wasted talents.

Surely, when the death certificate for sports in St Vincent and the Grenadines is prepared, it will be declared that the cause of death is “neglect from policy makers.”