Minister of Works and Transport Jack Warner feels that the T&T Cricket Board made a mistake in going to court over the Red Force's right to play in the Regional Four-Day Competition final earlier this month.
The Fifa vice-president was speaking during the third day of the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs' Symposium for Secondary School Leaders at the Cascadia Hotel, St Ann's, yesterday. Asked about his stance on the incident, in which the T&TCB failed to get an injunction to prevent the final between Jamaica and CCC from being played, Warner said he felt it was an ill-advised move on the board's behalf. "To go to court and have a judge decide who wins or who loses is the wrong thing to do. No sport should be settled in the court of law. I have always felt it should be settled on the field of play. If even they feel that they have been wronged in some way, as a good citizen you should turn your back and forgive them and move on because at the end of the day, that is what sport is about."
In stressing that the Board should admit to its mistake, Warner made reference to former chairman of the Police Service Commission Nizam Mohammed and his controversial statements about the ethnic make up of the local police force. "We live in a society where people seem to be afraid to say I'm sorry and move on. If Nizam Mohammed had said from the start, 'I'm sorry, I was wrong,' that would have been the end of the matter... Everybody wants to be a winner and we pay a dear price for that. I believe more people should be open and honest and say when they're wrong and move on. If we do that more often, this will be a better place for all of us in the end."Warner also spoke at length about his humble beginnings and early struggles as a young man. After one student implied that his journey to the top had been a "joyride", he became impassioned and offered a rebuttal. "When I was in Fifth Form with one pair of pants and one shirt that my mother would wash on Wednesdays and then place behind the fridge, that was no joyride! When I was a child and walked six miles to go to school every morning in a pair of 'washikongs' that had no sole and I would have to put paper at the bottom of it, that was no joyride!" The day's speakers also included Olympic Bronze medallist George Bovell and First Citizens Junior Sportsman of the Year Christian Homer. The four-day Symposium will conclude today with lectures by Minister of the People and Social Development Dr Glenn Ramadharsingh and Miss Universe 1977 Janelle Penny Commissiong Chow.