Getting our houses in order

The sporting landscape the world over is ever- changing and will be the case until eternity.

This is a fact of life that we have to accept and embrace.

When contextualized locally, St Vincent and the Grenadines has to consciously make that push to up our administrative game. Ridding ourselves of the notion that we are small, hence our actions and executions have to be aligned with our country’s size and that of our population, should be erased immediately from our thinking and mindset.

That embedded notion must be replaced by that go-getter and get better spirit.

Therefore, a professional approach relative to the administration of sports should be adopted and deposited deeply by all policy makers and the entire sporting fraternity.

We have to move away from the “hapsy- scrapsy” way of doing things.

It is for that said reason why, from assessment we are lagging behind in many respects and aspects, failing to make that conscious effort to change the status quo. Where do we start?

Readily, from the earliest possible avenue where sporting disciplines are taught, is at the pre- school level.

Here, getting the pre-schoolers to have fun whilst learning the fundamentals in sports should take pride of place.

Getting the right people to instil the right attitudes is also needed.

Critically as well, for St Vincent and the Grenadines to advance and keep pace with other countries, there must be a national policy enacted to get the population culturally engaged in sports.

What obtains at the present juncture, is a hit and miss approach towards sports. Yes, things happen, and sportsmen and sportswomen are able to excel, but often times, their progression and success are unstructured. As a consequence, top performances are not assured. Neither are the assurances of a production line of persons who can hold their own on the regional or international stage.

St Vincent and the Grenadines has to look at sports as a more viable option, because as recently as last August, we produced an Olympic finalist.

That accomplishment alone should be enough fillip to get the powers that be to become proactive, and charter the course so that we can produce another Shafiqua Maloney.

But to do so, we have to make sports a priority and part of the national programme for social advancement.

Ensuring that potential is moved to that nexus, where an accepted level of performance is reached, has to be part and parcel of the proposed matrices to excavate us from our current circumstances.

However, overall, whilst having the policies in place- early instilling of skills among other prerequisites, should we not pay attention to our governance structures, then everything else is worth little. This, as our country is littered with matters of governance issues which have been cited as most debilitating and obstructive in moving us out of the rot.

Hence, it can be safely concluded that much of the poor results Vincentian sportsmen and sportswomen endure, have their genesis in the way things are governed, and the manner in which some of the various sporting entities discharge their responsibilities and mandates.

We are where we are because of a lack of that will to do better; that institutionalised procrastination not to get our houses in order.

Let it be known, that a disorderly house will fall apart, should no running repairs be carried out. That restorative work must begin now, as the materials and workmen are running out.

Sporting organizations, from the community level, the national level and otherwise, must get their acts together and shift the direction in which we are going, as the course we are on is taking us to no place of prosperity.