Can sport really be used as a unifying mechanism?

Dear Editor,

The debate about the success or otherwise of the development of sport in Guyana (all of which, expectedly, not published in the Daily Chronicle), appears to have widened to involve other group discussions.

In one discussion the argument was made that one important measure of this aspect of social development was the extent of teamsmanship, and indeed unity, generated by sports amongst youths in particular. Sport, it was felt, provided one of the most sustained opportunities for the intermixture of a significant proportion of the society. And yet after many years of promotion, with the game of cricket being the inherited exception, it was difficult to identify significant participation in most, if not all, of the major sports in Guyana – athletics, boxing  basketball, football, even table tennis – by the majority of the population.

If this perception has any merit, then the question can properly be posed whether or not sports should be used as such unifying mechanism?

A response from the sports developers should prove instructive.

En passant is there any vision of Guyana producing a champion or world class contender, as has Trinidad and Tobago, St Kitts, Barbados, Bahamas, and, of course not to mention, Jamaica?

Yours faithfully,
E B  John