Yet again, we are faced with a situation, where a sporting personality has passed away and records of his performances are either unavailable or inaccessible. On this occasion, it is Michael "Joey" Carew-no ordinary sporting hero, but a man of tremendous value and importance to the cricketing and sporting landscape that is not confined to T&T but spreads across the world. This is a man accredited as being the most knowledgeable in his field over the last 50 years.
Evidence of this was seen at his funeral service on Friday 14 at St Theresa's RC Church in Woodbrook, where Father Gervais Girod presided over a moving ceremony. A galaxy of famous West Indies stars headed by his third "son" Brian Lara and including Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Wes Hall, Lance Gibbs, Gordon Greenidge, Michael Findlay, Charlie Davis and Colin Croft were all present to pay tribute to a man who had been an integral cog in their own careers.
But here is the problem. Where is the archive of Carew's life that can be accessed so that future generations can follow and understand the significance of his contribution to sports? The fact that so many in the media and at both the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and T&T Cricket Board (TTCB) were falling backwards to find information on this national icon and could not do so, tells a woeful tale of the importance (or lack of it), which this country places on sports and the heroes who emerge from it.
Why is it we had to depend on the Carew family in their time of need to provide the relevant information on his life?
We should all be ashamed for not putting in place an archive of sporting heroes and heroines and their successes or failures. When you listen to the many charismatic stories on Carew's life, they are both revealing and interesting and purposefully describe a man who played the game, intent at all times on winning. These real life descriptions of our sporting personalities will always appeal to our youth and enhance their spirit and belief in sports and, more importantly, encourage their participation. It is therefore time for someone to step forward and put mechanisms in place to ensure the history of our sporting icons is recorded and safely stored for usage at any time.
Ideally, each association should establish a system so they can have a proper mechanism in place to record the history of their constituents. They need to remember that the strength of their association will have been determined by the historical sporting trail set by many from the distant past. How many know how the association they represent today started? It may be difficult and quite a lot of work for these associations to independently perform this simulation and collation of information but we desperately need to start somewhere, even if we begin archiving from the 70s, 80s or 90s. It will be a start and all that will be needed, is continuation.
To depend on the media is a virtual waste of time. I remember as far back as 2008, Valentino Singh, current sports editor of the T&T Guardian, offered his services to the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, to establish a National Sporting Archive-a four-year project-that was intended to put together a Web site with information on every sporting personality who represented this country since 1962. Then Sports Minister Gary Hunt, in typical style, never followed up and the proposal remains in abeyance, properly stored in a file somewhere on Abercromby Street.
This is a great opportunity for current Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Anil Roberts, a million times more knowledgeable on the sporting needs of the country than his predecessor, to quickly put in place a review of what is needed to begin this process, sooner rather than later. As for Joey Carew, it would be wonderful and certainly make the memory of this great character called "The Boss" by Michael Holding last week, happy and proud, if his passing can lead to a mechanism that will ensure our sporting heroes will never be forgotten.
The archives could do well to utilise some of the great cricketing information on Joey to start this process. That too, would be another great tribute to this man. Minister Roberts will do well to get his Ministry of Sports and the Sports Company of T&T to join hands and operate like "one" team to ensure this goal is achieved. Many of us in this generation can think of icons who have left us but whose sporting contributions deserve recognition and commemoration. In a few years time, however, they will be only a faded memory-nothing but dust.
There has been a tremendous outpouring of love for the life of Joey Carew, and unless we do something quickly, many youngsters will have no knowledge of him due to our nation's failure to understand that we must preserve our history if we are to succeed in the future. If you want evidence on how negligent we have been, I refer to Isports Saturday on i95.5fm last Saturday when veteran T&T forward Steve David could not recall how many goals he scored while wearing the red, white and black colours. He knows "it is a lot."
This is the sort of guesswork that needs to be avoided. It would have been wonderful to have a Hall of Fame, for some of our greatest sporting personalities, where persons of all ages can visit and watch, listen and read about their performances, their thoughts and their role in the respective sport. In the case of "Joey" Carew, it would probably take more than 48 hours to understand the delicate complexities, but widely humane touch and insatiable love of family (beautiful and caring wife Marion, sons Michael Junior, David and adopted son Brian Charles Lara) of this man. It is not too too late. We can only hope there is not too much bravado in getting this done as quickly as possible.
In life, we appreciate the power and necessity for memories. We all have photos and video recordings of critical moments in our life, so we should not be surprised to expect that sporting administrators should also ensure that in their respective sports, this basic ingredient is in place to capture special people who have given us so much to cheer on. Everyone needs to know who Michael Conrad "Joey" Carew was and what he did for our country. If we fail to ensure that, we would have failed our country's sporting legacy.
We miss you, Joey, here's hoping your name will always live on.