Facilities Needed
Sat, Jan 22, '05
Over the last several weeks, I have been very involved in overseeing the maintenance/upkeep of the playing surfaces of especially the five main soccer stadiums in Trinidad & Tobago, among other things. Many might also know that I have a very vivid passion for many other sports.
Except for boxing, which is normally indoors, all of the sports that I have a passion for have a full outdoor presence while some have both in and outdoors situations. What is out there now, in most outdoor sports, in Trinidad & Tobago, and around the Caribbean, is very scary and worrying. Indeed, it is so scary that many dare, at their own peril, to try to get enough out of their efforts to perform creditably at the highest levels.
In less than three calendar years, the Caribbean will be hosting the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup, a very unique and extremely satisfying addition to our sporting calendar. With this particular event in mind, I am not too perturbed at what will eventually happen to our main cricket stadiums: Queens Park Oval, T&T; Bourda, Guyana; Kensington Oval, Barbados; Sabina Park, Jamaica; The Antigua Recreation Ground; Queens Park, Grenada; Arnos Vale, St. Vincent; and Bousejour Stadium, St. Lucia. All of these will be upgraded in some form, some fully renovated and, in the case of Grenada, regenerated; some for direct use during the 2007 competition, others for practice for the great event.
Add to that list the new cricket stadiums proposed, and in some cases, already being built, in Guyana, St. Vincent, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, St. Kitts, Lauderhill (Florida) and a few others elsewhere, and you would agree that by the end of 2007, remembering that the physically challenged must be catered for in these too, the Caribbean would be able to boast of having probably the greatest extent of proper cricketing facilities in the world, trying to rival those of Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
The present cricketing facilities in especially South Africa, which only came back into sporting prominence in 1992, and which benefited tremendously from the 1995 Rugby World Cup and the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup, are, in my opinion, the best in the world today, even better than those in Australia. That is achieving something special.
Caribbean-style cricket will take care of itself, at least on the field of play, regionally and internationally. What worries me more these days is what has been happening in many other sports, especially at the facilities used to achieve excellence.
One of my better sporting acquaintances had something to say about having the best facilities available. ?There are three main ingredients in the making of a world-class athlete?, suggests several times over US Olympic Medalist Gwen Torrence, the sprinter now retired to a great marriage and motherhood, after more than 12 years on the track, someone who actually sat on the floor of my townhouse in West Palm Beach, Florida, to eat pizza!!
?First must come the personal desire of the athlete. The main focus is self, singular, selfish even. Secondly comes the contributing experiences of others, either to personally help along the way in the preparation, or, at least, for references and comparisons. Thirdly, but not necessarily in that order at all, must come the facilities offered, the best conditions possible, for training and competition, to allow one to have excellent performances in one?s chosen disciplines. Only two of these can be controlled by the athlete. For the third one, the facilities, the athlete has to depend on everyone else.?
None of the main soccer stadiums in Trinidad & Tobago, except the Haseley Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain and the Dwight Yorke Stadium in Tobago, have any land-line telephonic contacts with anyone outside of the stadiums. The managers and stadium personnel are expected, but not given a stipend to do so, to keep cellular telephones ready for such use. Given the current state of the cellular situation offered in T&T, the success rate of making cellular contact from the Mannie Ramjohn stadium in Marrabella or the Ato Bolden stadium in Couva, or even the Larry Gomes stadium in Malabar/Arima, is about 40%, at best. I wonder how these supposed ?sports? stadiums are supposed to function well, make and keep contact with the sports world at large, via the internet, or simply send a facsimile?
For fitness sake and to extend the thought of youth, I really enjoy running and cycling, with some stunted efforts at swimming. I even try to complete the increasingly populated Chancellor Hill; just around the corner from the strategically placed Brian Lara?s home (just in case I collapse!!); twice every week-day, before running around the Queens Park Savannah afterwards.
On the weekends, I try to do much cycling with my big Raleigh/Schwinn/Trek combination road racer, courtesy of ?Geronimo? Samuels. I had done some very amateur bi-and tri-athlons while I lived in Florida in the 1990s and hope to do the same here in T&T, and around the Caribbean too, in 2005. By the way, this exercise regimen has nothing to do with carnival. This is about trying to extend my own life!!
The normal running courses; Chancellor Hill, Ft. St. George, the Savannahs (Queens Park, Aranguez, Eddie Hart, UWI etc) and Mount St. Benedict; are all acceptable, if not altogether perfect, since many persons have been hit, some seriously damaged, by motorists on some of the hilled running tracks. Many entrust their faith to God when trying to save their own lives by indulging in some sort of on-road exercise.
Now, picture this for the moment. You are running on a specifically prepared, able-bodied, oval running/jogging track of about five kilometers length. Running on the outside of this able-bodied track, separated with safety conscious barriers, is another similar track, except that this one is much wider, and is for the physically challenged, those folk in their wheel-chairs that have so much to contribute to our lives. On the outside of that wheel-chair track, again suitably safety regulated, is yet another track, one for cyclists only. The entire space taken up is about the size of five-six New York city blocks. Normally, these tracks are augmented by a full Sports Sciences Centre nearby. Sporting utopia, eh? Well, that type of facility exists in every town in Australia and in parts of South Africa, not just the major known cities.
We in the Caribbean have recently become even more aware than ever about the Australian way of life when it comes to sport, even if we did not already know it from their great cricket, athletic, rugby and tennis teams of the past, not to mention the 2000 Sydney Olympics, still suggested as the best ever, and of course Dennis Waithe, the man credited, rightfully so, with making the West Indies cricket teams of the 1970s and 1980s the fittest ever.
The main difference between the Australians population and the Caribbean people is that the Australians, from the Prime Minister, Mr. John Howard, to the cab driver and the disposal/sanitary engineer (garbage-men, for those who do not know), everyone; simply play and do sport. All we in the Caribbean do, par excellence, from the top down, with some rare notable examples, such a Mr. Jack Warner of FIFA fame, is talk about sport. Most of the people in the Caribbean who can really make a difference in sports generally care little to do anything to help its existence overall. All they do is talk well!!
Swimming is probably the biggest nightmare of any disciple, facility-wise, in Trinidad & Tobago and the Caribbean, despite most of the Caribbean being surrounded by its own sea-water. In Trinidad & Tobago, a country that boasts of a Bronze Medal in the Olympics, a fantastic effort by young Mr. Bovell, there is, to my knowledge, only one 50-meter (Olympic size) swimming pool; in Westmoorings. How ?public? is this facility is left to one?s opinion. That is not only a shame, it is very embarrassing. If one considers that folks come from all over the world to sample the scuba diving and snorkeling in Tobago and its wonderful reefs, one should imagine that there should also be at least five full-sized public swimming pools, to augment the soccer stadiums, around this wealthy country.
Where, may I ask, would the aspiring Bovells of the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games? swimming competitions go to train to try to emulate their hero? If anyone suggests that they go to the few 25-meter pools around the country, adequate as they may be for recreational activities, then I propose that you do not understand the sport of swimming at all. I can only suppose, hope even, that those 50-meter pools are in the future, hopefully the near future, but they were needed yesterday, Mr. Bovell?s success or not.
I have actually had friends, some very promising cyclists, killed on the roads of Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago while riding their bicycles for training purposes. From personal experiences, riding a bicycle on the roads of the Caribbean is probably the nearest thing we have to assisted suicide!!
One Sunday afternoon, I was nearly hit at least 16 times, on the Priority Bus Route, as I journeyed from the Aranguez Savannah to Arima and back on my bike and that was not due to any lack of riding skills. My riding skills may have actually saved my life!!
Many a morning and evening, I see dozens of even more skilled youths than me taking their lives into their own hands, braving the massive potholes, the undulating road surfaces and the traffic, as they journey along the Churchill/Roosevelt Highway or riding the Maracas Beach roadways, among others, just trying to get in some much needed road-work. The scary thought is that maybe only the Almighty could explain why more cyclists have not been killed, given the conditions that they operate in.
Considering that Trinidad & Tobago has produced Gene ?Geronimo? Samuels, the Phillips clan, Ian Attherley and the incomparable Roger Gibbons (who could forget the tremendous tussles between Gibbons, Peder Pederson of Denmark and the De Freitas brothers of Guyana in the 1970?s & 80?s), among other world-class pedal-pushers, and yet, to date, there is no real cycling facility anywhere in the country for those trying to follow in their footsteps, to train properly. The Arima Cycling Velodrome is used for everything else but cycling and riding there is so haphazard that it actually causes great stress, since the alternative is the road, and its pending accidents.
Many may also know that I had been the Facility Manager of the UWI Sports & Physical Education Centre at St. Augustine for its first two years of existence. While the facility does work well in most circumstances, I would point out that that facility and many around the country and the Caribbean also have certain short-comings.
Where is the effort to accommodate the physically challenged at any of the sports facilities in the Caribbean? Some of the concrete abutments in the design of some of these buildings, at shoulder height, on the main floors, suggest that the designers never played any sport, ala basket-ball, netball or volley-ball, even indoor football (futsal). The UWI SPEC is going to be improving over time, with a first-class cricket arena and athletics track etc, but that alone is not enough. 1.3 million people cannot use that facility all at the same time.
The public netball, hockey, rugby and tennis courts around T&T are in an appalling, sorry state. If you doubt me, then just take a short sojourn to the public tennis courts at the Princess Buildings in Port of Spain. The toilets and sanitary facilities are simply indescribable. The soccer stadium roofs all leak and the facades have not been cleaned since their inception in 2001!! If only the example could be taken from the golfing facilities around the world, even those in Trinidad & Tobago. The security and maintenance that are there is quite inadequate for many of the local and regional sports stadiums.
We are hoping that at least T&T, from the Caribbean, qualifies for the 2006 Soccer World Cup. We hope that the West Indies will become the first host country to win Cricket World Cup, in 2007. Our tennis, athletic, cycling and rugby folks are trying to go up the respective sports ladders. While the human personal element would do the best possible, we need proper facilities. Talk is cheap. We need some action. We need proper facilities now!!
