How is consistent, world-class excellence produced in the midst of such wholesale incompetence?
I suppose you can attach almost any activity to that opening line and it would be perfectly relevant, such is the degree of inefficiency in this country.
But this is specifically about hockey, a sport in which the national men’s team has qualified for the Indoor World Cup for the third time in 18 years, a sport which has been essentially homeless for nearly eight years since the National Hockey Centre was earmarked for an overdue refurbishment of the playing surface.
Of course, as with all other sports which offer such variations, there are significant differences between the indoor and outdoor games, and while Tacarigua remains out of bounds, therefore hampering the development of top players and teams locally for the traditional format, the Woodbrook Youth Centre served head coach Raphael Govia’s squad well in the build-up to last month’s Indoor Pan American Hockey Cup in the Canadian city of Calgary.
Notwithstanding what has been achieved in the sport over several decades, hockey languishes on the periphery of the national consciousness while everything related to football, cricket and athletics generally dominates the headlines. It’s only when something like this happens, in this case achieved via a 4-3 semi-final victory over the United States, that the spotlight and headlines deservedly belong to hockey.
Unfortunately, it also serves to remind us of the glaring shortcomings, the inevitable consequence of a generally accepted culture of bobol, which, if it were to ever be minimised, would result in the unleashing of so much potential, not just in hockey but in all sport, that we would only be left to wonder could have been across many years of frustrating the best efforts of generations of sportsmen and women in Trinidad and Tobago.
Relaying of the playing surface at Tacarigua should have been completed in 2017 yet here we are, seven years on, and the latest reporting on the matter via these pages is that officials responsible for the project are anticipating the release of foreign exchange to complete the long-overdue exercise.
Why should anyone believe that though? Last year the Sports Minister, who was notably absent from the welcoming party which greeted the national team early in the morning at Piarco on their return from Calgary, announced in January of last year that the water-based turf would have been properly installed by July, 2023, adding that if there were any further delays she would inform the public promptly.
But why is even that acceptable? A trend has now developed with these taxpayer-funded activities for politicians and their assortment of lackeys and apologists to run around the place whenever a project is finally completed to boast about getting the job done on time, conveniently ignoring the fact that, that the so-called “on time” represents at least the tenth time that the completion date had been pushed back.
Yet no voice is ever raised to put these people in their place. It’s almost as if this culture of corruption and incompetence is accepted as an unavoidable reality and we should just be grateful that the thing was completed at all, never mind the staggering cost-overrun, which is a polite phrase to replace shameless stealing of taxpayers’ money.
What these jacket-and-tie and stiletto heel flagbearers for cluelessness and incompetence are also banking on – and they are right to do so – is our woefully short memories so when they say something like “Boy, Covid mess up everything!” we will see the observation as valid and not recognise that hockey players should have been back on the field at the national facility in 2017, three years before Covid-19 washed up on our shores.
By the way, if 2017 rings a bell, it’s because that was the year the Brian Lara Stadium was finally opened, fully ten years after it was scheduled to be completed in time to serve as a warm-up venue for the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean.
Officials insist on referring to it as the Brian Lara Cricket Academy, but where is it? Where is the space, the facilities and, more importantly, the activities to justify calling it an “Academy,” or do we believe that naming it as such is enough?
There is really no end to this type of gross mismanagement. If it’s not homeless hockey players, it’s athletes unable to train because of some fete or other non-sporting event. If it’s not the Dwight Yorke Stadium left to disintegrate, it’s Skinner Park with a pitch that doesn’t meet international football standards.
Maybe it’s all meant to keep us in check because, if we were to ever get that right we would, starting with our men’s indoor hockey team in Croatia next year, conquer the world with one hand tied behind our backs.
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