An ugly brawl between two local welterweight boxers, disgruntled over the outcome of their Friday May 28th bout on the Pro Am Fight Card at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall provided a painful reminder of the periodic violence among athletes and spectator alike that blights some local sports. Those who claim to know say that the confrontations, which, on occasion, have involved knives and guns and have sometimes resulted in serious injury, are spawned, primarily, by an emerging culture of illegal and heavy betting on the outcomes of contests that is now common in some sports, notably football and boxing. That incident, along with the withdrawal of the Lady Jaguars from participation in the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) games on account of a lack of funds and the customary calumnies of Caribbean cricket – including the accountability-related issues that surfaced at the level of the local cricket board – were, perhaps, the more notable troughs during a roughly three-month purple patch for local sport.
Some of the successes stood out……….. like Guyana’s surprising emergence as Caribbean T/20 Champions; rugby sevens male and female teams’ demolition of their hemispheric opposition at Providence and, among individuals, Ransford Goodluck’s emphatic reminder, even in his veteran years, of his dominance of Caribbean rifle-shooting; Shondel Alfred’s decisive victory over Corine De Groot to lift what had appeared to be an elusive world title and the emergence of Jonathan Foo and Davindra Bishoo as, perhaps, future prospects who may help lift the pall of gloom that has now settled firmly over West Indies cricket. There may have been others deserving of credit but these stood out.
The doldrums of our cricket persisted in a thoroughly one-sided encounter with South Africa where our status as one of the occupants of the game’s cellar was cruelly underscored. Apart from having been able to salvage little from that encounter except, perhaps, centuries by the evergreen Chandrapaul and the stodgy but determined Nash in the second Digicel test on a featherbed pitch, subsequent questions might even have been raised regarding the leadership of the West Indies team following Chris Gayle’s ousting as captain of Jamaica for the regional T/20 tournament.
The exclusion of the Lady Jags from the CAC encounter was perhaps our major sporting disappointment of the period. They had, after all and surprisingly in the view of many, defeated Cuba by a 3-1 margin at the National Stadium and that alone made them deserving of an international outing. No one, not the government or the respective sports associations appear able – or perhaps willing – to do much to eradicate what has now become a familiar cap in hand culture that attends the raising of monies to enable Guyana’s participation in overseas sporting events, a limitation that continues to seriously injure the development of sport in Guyana.
Much was made – and deservingly so – of 11 year-old Jevina Sampson’s Singapore Youth Olympics scholarship. Jevina’s good fortune provides a measure of assurance that one of our local athletes will benefit from exposure upon which she can build, that is, with the support of the people responsible for taking sport forward. It would not hurt to push for more such opportunities for our young athletes.
Ransford Goodluck’s rifle-shooting exploits in the region puts him in contention for the accolade of the most consistent Guyanese performer in any individual sport over a protracted period. Six Caribbean titles and victories at numerous local events are surely enough to earn him that title. His only rival for sustained high-quality individual performance over a comparable period would be Shivnarine Chanderpaul. A special award must surely be fashioned for this unique achiever.
Then there is the performance of our squash players at the recent Junior Caribbean Squash Championship in the Cayman Islands and our swimmers at the Goodwill Games in Suriname. Squash is one of those sports in which Guyana has consistently held its own in the region and part of the reason must surely have to do with the independence of the Association. The sport would also have been buoyed by the return to the Caribbean a few weeks ago by veteran Guyanese squash player, Richard Chin to participate in and eventually win the Caribbean men’s championships.
Those sports that suffer most in Guyana are the poor ones, those that appear to lack the capability to secure facilities and to generate funding and whose, resort, at the end of the day, is to a familiar last minute begging bowl option close to the time when teams must travel abroad to compete. All concerned, would do well to pay some measure of attention to the point made by a Canadian Sports Consultant who visited Guyana recently regarding the need for countries to invest in sport.
Some small successes, including Nicolette Fernandes’ individual bronze medal at the CAC games, and her sliver medal, along with Keisha Jeffrey in the Women’s Doubles, Aliann Pompey’s silver medal in the 400 metres, Adrian Spellen’s weightlifting silver medal in the 87 kg class and medals by boxers Dexter Jordan and Ray Sandiford were perhaps overshadowed by a succession of tribulations that attached themselves to participation in those games. Flight problems arose, one of our boxers fell ill and according to the manager of the boxing team the experience did much to de-motivate his charges. Somehow, you feel that problems like these can only be removed through more careful planning. The problem, of course, is that travelling sports teams, managers and athletes alike, are invariably so taken up with raising funds, securing cut price airline tickets and, in some cases, extracting visas from the United States Embassy that there is usually not enough time for that kind of planning.
Late in July Sport Minister Dr. Frank Anthony announced that the Liliendaal Swimming Pool will be opened by mid-September. That, when it happens, will be a significant boost for a sport that has had to cope and has coped admirably in tough circumstances on account of the application of its officials, not least the seemingly untiring Dr. Karen Pilgrim.
Some of us never expected Guyana to come even close to winning the regional T/20 championships but win they did, over a Barbados team that appeared to have been doing better in every department. Jonathan Foo’s contribution went way beyond his match-winning innings. It bespoke a dimension of ‘fight,’ of doggedness and of self-belief, qualities that appear to have long disappeared from Caribbean cricket. It is, still, only a small triumph which makes the suggestion that it marks a turning point in our cricket more than a trifle overdone. Guyana must play to win in South Africa, but, perhaps more importantly, the entire team must, in their individual and collective performances give of their best and infuse into their games in the future the valuable lessons that they will doubtless learn from competing with the best.
Rugby has no more than a modest following in Guyana. That is a great pity since one would be hard-pressed to recall a more emphatic win for any Guyana team, in any series of matches and in any sport………ever. Not even our men’s surprising loss to Jamaica during the tournament could detract from a comprehensive demolition job of our opponents from the Caribbean and the wider hemisphere, a triumph which, unquestionably earned far more tumultuous national applause than it actually received. The triumph at Providence was swiftly followed by a major disappointment when, for a lack of funding, the Guyana Rugby Football Union was unable to send a team to the North American and Caribbean Rugby Association’s Senior Women’s 15 a – side tournament. We had to settle instead for the inclusion of three of our female players on a select regional team.
What is also entirely deserving of mention is the Best Batsman Award bestowed on young Winston Forrester at the recent 24th Sir Garfield Sobers International Schools Cricket Tournament. Forrester, we hope, will now dare to dream that one day he might walk to the wicket for Guyana and thereafter for the Caribbean as part of a rejuvenated regional cricketing culture that has not only recalled the art of winning but a culture that is free of the conflicts between the players and the Board which amount no more than an infuriating distraction from the job at hand………..raising our game.
In August Guyana hosted the 116th International Shotokan Karate Federation Pan American Games. Hosting an international sporting event is an honor for any country and apart from proving themselves warm and capable hosts, the Guyana team emerged as champions. Perhaps without the fanfare that attaches itself to the more popular spectator sport, Karate is growing steadily in Guyana, supported by parents who have come to regard the sport both as a form of physical exercise and a tool that is capable of creating a higher level of discipline among children.
