Normally, one has a wish list for Christmas and for the New Year, we all make these resolutions that perhaps many of us do not keep. Therefore, since I missed the wish list stage for Christmas and may not keep my resolutions, I have decided to make a wish list for the New Year.
Here it goes:
1 All sporting organisations take a long, hard look at their administrators and ask some pertinent questions like who is responsible for running the sport. They must honestly assess whether they are doing a good job and if they are not, move them out with utmost urgency.
2 Stop voting for friends or give a vote to someone so you can obtain a certain position or get a free flight to some country because of your vote.
3 Stop placing people at the top who only know how to play politics with the sport to elevate themselves and their interests.
4 The FIFA-imposed Normalisation Committee finally makes their departure from T&T’s football. A reminder that this Committee was established in March 2020 for a period, according to FIFA, of “...no more than 24 months”. If my Mathematics is correct, this imposed committee on T&T’s football has been in existence for 45 months; shocking.
5 An election is called by the FIFA-imposed Normalisation Committee to put people in charge who know the game and understand the needs of football, coaches and footballers.
6 The powers that be take women’s football to another level like Jamaica so that one day, T&T qualifies for a Women’s World Cup and stop treating T&T’s women footballers like ballerinas instead of proper athletes.
7 The Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) ensures that all schools place an abundance of resources on player development and not an emphasis on winning at all costs. The girls’ league in the SSFL needs help with their programmes as their standards are not up to those at the regional level.
8 The powers that be change the laws to allow players born to grandparents or some relative to gain citizenship so they can represent T&T at the international level.
9 Coaches at all levels work hard on the development of players to get the basics right.
10 Cricket West Indies (CWI) gets better contracts and incentives for West Indies players to stay at home and represent the regional team.
11 A proper transparent policy be put in place for the selection of teams both at the white and red ball level so the injustice meted out to players like Darren Bravo should not happen again to any player.
12 The West Indies Test team improves to be at least competitive in series against powerhouses like Australia, India and New Zealand.
13 CWI gets a proper marketing plan to bring better sponsorship on board so their cash flow can be improved and stop giving jobs to friends and contacts.
14 CWI selectors pick a squad based on the transparent policy and performance for the Men’s T20 World Cup to be staged in the Caribbean next year and they would stand as good a chance as any to win the tournament.
15 The T&T Cricket Board finds out where the money has gone and whoever is responsible should spend time behind bars.
16 More emphasis be placed on development programmes so once again the Under-19 team can be successful.
17 Play more red ball cricket locally to give the Red Force team a chance to win the regional tournament since they have not won it since 2006.
18 The T&T Cycling Federation (TTCF) obtains all the help from the private sector and the government for Nicholas Paul to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games.
19 The TTCF continues to search for more talent in the world of cycling and can use the Pauls of this world as motivators for success.
20 The Aquatic Sports Association of T&T (ASATT) continues to push youngsters to look and learn from the likes of Dylan Carter to be better competitive swimmers.
21 Assist Dylan Carter with all the sponsorship he needs to challenge for a medal at the Olympic Games.
22 The T&T Netball Association looks at all of their programmes and tries to understand what Lystra Lewis and those administrators did back in the seventies to be joint World champions. Perhaps they are proud to finish 10th and 11th in the world.
23 The T&T Boxing Board searches far and wide to unearth another Claude Noel or Leslie Stewart as boxing seems to be confined to bars and fights on the block activities.
24 The T&T Hockey Board gets its act together so that the country can produce better players to compete against the United States etc.
25 The Tennis Association of T&T takes a hard objective look at where the sport has reached in T&T. I can answer that for you as it has reached rock bottom. When we go back to think of the Price brothers, the Valdez brothers and more recently the Stone brothers the T&T team competed at the highest level of the Davis Cup then. Now, the T&T team is fighting up with the lesser countries. Shame on you as so much more can be done with that wonderful tennis facility in Tacarigua.
26 Other sports in particular basketball, table tennis and volleyball must also take a hard look at themselves and do the right thing for the upliftment of the sport. I wish these three associations could try and set a winning objective in the next three to five years and make the supporters of those sports happy that something is being done to uplift the game.
27 In every solitary sport women are given as equal an opportunity as men to raise their levels to international standards and receive equal pay for their hard work.
28 Other than Nicholas Paul, I wish the National Association of Athletics Administration (NAAA) prepare the athletes properly to ensure some athlete wearing the red, white and black, wins a gold medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in France. NAAA all I want is one gold, not 10 and I would be happy.
I know my wish list is long but if for the sake of the fans, a third of my wish list is achieved, then all sports fans in T&T would be overjoyed.
To all my readers, I wish you a happy, sporting and prosperous 2024!
Editor’s note: The views expressed in the preceding article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of any organisation in which he is a stakeholder.
