One victory can inspire a nation, one moment of success can bring back hope when all seemed lost. But sometimes, even in sports, victory is not attained without a deeper cost. As I watched our netballers fight with every part of their bodies to attain victory over a determined Barbados outfit in Glasgow on Thursday, it reminded me of the spirit , that we the people of this country possess. The will to succeed, and the will to fight for what is right to achieve that.Janelle Barker was smiling afterwards, but on the court, this young lady threw her body around without care in an effort to ensure her team won. But she was not alone, Captain Anika La Roche-Brice, inspired her team with true leadership and guts.Netball demonstrated in that one hour of sports , all that is good, bad and pretty in our sports in T&T, and whether it was the shooting prowess of Joelisa Cooper and Kalifa Mc Collin or the distribution skills of Tricia Liverpool in centre court, there was a–Never Say Die–attitude.
Team Sport, is about understanding your roles, similar to the current relationship, I have with several of the sporting administrations in this country, who forget about the athlete and instead look at themselves.Thankfully, that is not the case in Netball, at this time. And the movement of Onelia Jack, Rhonda John Davis and Kemba Duncan cannot be mentioned enough.
For me though, there was one star in Daystar Swift, 22, has a bright future in front of her.I had decided, that while others would choose, swimming, cycling, hockey, squash or most probably table tennis, I was going to give netball my time. For many reasons, two of which are Dr Pat Butcher and Sherril Peters.It must not be easy being a man among so many beautiful T&T women , especially when you have their attention, I wondered about it for just about 120 seconds, then realize the necessity to be a good coach, was beyond me, and left the job to the very professional and tactical Wesley "Pepe" Gomes.
Thursday was our day, there will be other days not so good, so when you are successful, it is fair that all saviour such and enjoy it so much, that you want it more often, until it becomes a habit.Meanwhile , there is still no betting shop willing to accept my small English pounds on Michelle Lee Ahye winning the women's 100 metres, and I am becoming upset, even thinking about hiring a lawyer from Trinidad ( not Tobago) to represent me in this serious breach of fairplay, this injustice, this intentional oversight by the betting shops in Glasgow, Scotland.
As for the Kilt , there is a competition in Scotland, to decide, who makes the best Kilt, and my understanding is that a West Indian, or person with West Indian heritage is among the contenders, how serious the competition, only time will tell, but for the moment, my money is that this West Indian in particular might win given how creative and inventive we are in the region.
Have you ever thought of how, the people of T&T would behave if we could host such a major games as the Commonwealth Games, and most importantly, how we would treat our many visitors.
It does not appear, that there is any major controversy over rights, supplies or funding or any schemes going one way or the next, here in Glasgow.Instead, what these games are doing is uniting a country, uniting a people and making everyone proud to be Scottish, and to be part of this wonderful showcase, that is Scotland. I ask you to think, what will we be able to show the World, for more than 60 minutes in a positive way on T&T.These are questions, like those raised to our netballers by our Caribbean counterparts–Barbados, which were incisively answered with strong resolve. It is this , that we need more of in sports in our country.By the way, I have a picture with a Kilt to show the people, and let them be the judge, the person wearing the Kilt will shock all of you.