PRESIDENT OF the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) Brian Lewis has called for greater accountability for sporting administrators, in light of last Friday’s controversial Twitter incident involving West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Whycliffe “Dave” Cameron and veteran opening batsman Christopher Gayle.

Cameron retweeted a post by a fan calling for Gayle to retire in light of his struggles in One Day Internationals (ODI), but Gayle responded emphatically tuesday with a record innings of 215 against Zimbabwe in the ICC Cricket World Cup.

In a telephone interview on tuesday, Lewis admitted, “I was a little surprised that he would have re-tweeted something that could have been inferred as a derogatory or a negative statement about Christopher Gayle. Everybody makes their own choices, but that is not something I would have considered prudent to do, given the fact that he’s the president of the West Indies Cricket Board. I felt that he had a greater duty and responsibility to adopt a different approach.”

Cameron’s action received condemnation on social media, and a number of leading cricketing names, including commentator Tony Cozier, former fast bowling great Michael Holding and former boss of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) Dinanath Ramnarine.

“It is a well-established principle that you praise in public but you chastise in private,” said Lewis. “I don’t think this was something that would have been helpful. And I think the end result proved that. It was perceived negatively by former players, commentators and the public, and it highlights the challenges and dangers of social media.

“What is happening with the West Indies Cricket Board, especially with the looming elections on the 7th of March, has raised the scrutiny on the Board,” he added. “When such scrutiny is intensified, as sports leaders, we are held to a higher standard.”

On the issue of accountability by sporting administrators, Lewis made it clear that, “in everything in leadership, the ultimate accountability is the stakeholders. Mr Cameron was held accountable on social media by the anger and the disgust which his re-tweet was received.”

And Lewis slammed the WICB for their role in the entire Twitter scenario. “The bigger issue, I think, is the heightened scrutiny, justifiably so, in terms of the governance and the governance structure of the West Indies Cricket Board,” he said. “As one of the major and leading sports organisations in the region, the West Indies Cricket Board has been found wanting.”

Lewis stressed, “the stakeholders, in the context of West Indies cricket, must be the players. People don’t play to see the administrators, they play to see the players. In terms of the commercial opportunities that will build the brand of West Indies cricket, is the players. Therefore the West Indies Cricket Board must see themselves as being accountable to the stakeholders, including the players. It makes no sense trying to sweep the matter under the carpet.

He continued, “while I’m very sympathetic for the challenges that sports administrators in the region face in their respective territories, it doesn’t take away from the fact that we are held to a higher standard.”

Lewis noted that Cameron must take the blame for the perceived souring of relations between the WICB and the players, in light of the retweet issue.

“Given some of the challenges that the West Indies Cricket Board have found (themselves) in, the buck stops with the president. We cannot, as leaders, hold ourselves as exemplars if we don’t have the sense of responsibility, obligation and duty to be accountable for things that aren’t going right. The Board are more than happy to hold the players accountable and, therefore, whether unintentional or not, is being practised is double standard.”

On Gayle’s record-breaking World Cup innings yesterday, Lewis said, “credit must be given to Gayle in particular because he had to deal with an obvious slap of the face from his president. He also had to deal with a letter pertaining to a disciplinary matter.

“Not withstanding all of that, he proved the well-standing sporting adage that form is temporary and class is permanent, and the best revenge (amounts to) success. What he did was responded, like the true champion that he is.”

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Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) president Brian Lewis is promising a  Good Sport Governance code will soon become reality for this country.

The TTOC,  the body holding exclusive  authority for the Olympic Games and sports recognized by the International Olympic Committee(IOC),  is also responsible for the Commonwealth Games and sports recognized by the Commonwealth Games Federation( CGF) under the Trinidad and Tobago Commonwealth Games Association(TTCGA). And in the TTOC's ongoing efforts  to  raise governance standards in the national sport  organisations across the country, the TTOC is in discussions with international and local good governance experts  as part of the national Olympic committee's commitment to establish a Good Sport Governance code and guidelines .

"Good governance of national sports organizations and national governing bodies is essential to ensuring the development of sport is in accordance with the ethics and values of sport," Lewis said, "Given the role of sport within society to inspire and influence, the transparency, democracy and integrity of national sport organizations and  governing bodies, clubs and sport based organizations needs to be assured."

Lewis also explained that national sporting bodies needed to govern their affairs in an "efficient, accountable, transparent and democratic manner".

Transparency International (TI) defines corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.

It is a situation Lewis and his TTOC executive want to rid the NSOs of.

"Be it by choice, inability or inadvertence poor governance leads to corruption and the misuse of resources with the consequent negative impact on the athletes in particular, " Lewis said.

Lewis who has been involved in sport administration for three decades said  there is no one size fits all panacea and good corporate and organizational governance norms can't be adopted blindly in sport. "Its a complex situation that requires consideration of the specificity of sport. Hence the intention of the TTOC/TTCGA to work with a cross section of experts to ensure that the TTOC proposed Good Sport Governance code is credible and realistic," Lewis indicated.

Lewis concluded by saying the implementation and compliance action plan must be responsive to the need for cooperation across the Trinidad and Tobago sport sector.

Jamaica has become the latest country to publicly back Sebastian Coe's campaign to become the new President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) following a visit by the double Olympic 1500 metres gold medallist to Kingston.

Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) President Warren Blake promised they would vote for the Briton, who is standing against Ukraine's Sergey Bubka to replace Lamine Diack, the Senegalese who is stepping down in August after 16 years as head of athletics' world governing body.

"It will be remiss if I said he is not our [JAAA] favourite candidate, but we would like to hear from Mr Bubka as well," Blake told local newspaper The Gleaner.

"The decision to support Coe was based on the fact that we support the pillars of his manifesto.

"As a Federation, as an organisation, we need to embrace change and to lead the change through innovation like the street festival and street athletics programmes [advanced by Coe].

"We have to take the athletics to the people, the IAAF has to lead in this regard and Coe intends to push along.

"Lord Coe sees the importance of giving more power to the Federations and, importantly, maximising the commercial growth and the exposure of track and field.

"We also need to build integrity and strengthen the anti-doping programme.

"Based on those concrete positions and the focus of Lord Coe's vision for the sport, we feel comfortable in supporting his candidacy."

Coe estimates that he has already travelled 200,000 kilometres on the campaign trail but Blake claimed his visit to Jamaica demonstrated he would support the smaller countries.

"Lord Coe's visit shows that our efforts are not going unnoticed," Blake told The Gleaner.

"It shows that he places significance on Jamaica and the region.

"For Jamaica, it's important for us that the funding of track and field and the availability of high-level coaches in the different disciplines that we are not strong in is addressed.

"Other member Federations have trouble securing different levels of expertise and the IAAF needs to step up and offer more support in these areas."

"We will be suggesting that and other things to him."

It is the second public endosrement Coe has received following a trip last month to New Zealand.

"It's very flattering and it's a great honour to have Jamaica's support," Coe, the former chairman of London 2012 and currently vice-president of the IAAF, told The Gleaner.

"It is really important that Jamaica is seen to be playing a very senior role in track and field around the world.

"If you look at what you are doing in schools, your competitive structures, the way you are identifying talent, nurturing it, coaching it at a world-class level, there are a lot of things that we could learn.

"Jamaican track and field is a powerhouse.

"It's probably the highest profile Federation and not only because of the nature of the athletes that you currently have.

"No athlete in my generation could come through the sport without recognising the seismic contributions that Jamaican track and field has made not only to the history of track and field in this region, but world history."

Coe also promised a role for six-time Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt after he retired following the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London.

"When Usain does decide to retire, our sport must maintain and figure out how he can go on making that impact, it's really important," said Coe after meeting Bolt.

"We have a strong ambassadorial programme but it's very important that people like Usain that have made such a huge impact are encouraged to go on making that contribution.

"No sport that has a Usain Bolt can ever afford for him to suddenly become a stranger to the sport."

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RIA RAMNARINE’S “Boxing Beyond The Ring” has surpassed the unlimited expectations of her avid and enthusiastic participants.

At the Fine Line Boxing Gym in Chaguanas yesterday, the former national female boxing standout held her programme’s penultimate session with the group of both young and mature women. Throughout the six week course thus far, Ramnarine and Fine Line coach Bharath Ramoutar has been educating these women on several basic awareness, protective knowledge and techniques which can prove instrumental in dangerous and challenging day-to-day situations.

The mission of this brainchild initiative by Ramnarine is to encourage female participation in boxing through a training programme which enables participants to understand that apart from the sport outcome, the physiological and psychological benefits of boxing lead to an increase in self-efficiency, empowerment and personal safety. At the Gym yesterday, Ramnarine and her assistant male tutor went through several mental and physical routines with her attentive all-female class. Several members of her unit hail from varying “female empowerment” organisations throughout the twin-island republic and were all in high praise of the boxer’s idea, who they claim, has been reaping bountiful benefit.

After a hectic session yesterday morning, Marlene Charles, president of the Young Women Christian Association, expressed her gratitude towards the initiative and chose to highlight some of her knowledge gained from her sessions at “Boxing Beyond The Ring”.

“Boxing was on my list of things to do before I reached 50,” she said. “I like the fact that’s a class for women. As a woman, sometimes you feel self conscious when you go to the gym because of so many skinny people. However, it’s a comfortable environment here.”

“I like the idea that it’s not just about boxing,” Charles added. “In the first week, Ria brought an official to explain the legal aspects of self-defence, and there was a lot of stuff revealed that I did not know. A lot of things that you thought you know, we’re now open to understanding it here.” Two younger members of the class, 16-year-old Kimberly Baptiste and 15-year-old Shenelle Ramsamooj, both of ASJA Girls in Charlieville, also took part in the programme and welcomed the mental and physical benefits of the course.

“The things that we thought we could have done, we can now. The fear factor has been removed from us a bit and we’re a bit more confident in ourselves. We have learnt a lot about observing our surroundings and being preventative before use of physical strengths. This is not a programme to fight, it’s a programme that educates young women like myself, which makes us a lot more aware of our actions,” said Baptiste.

Chatting with the tiny-framed Ramsamooj, she also stated that her mental confidence has been elevated. Bullying in schools is now an unwelcome but present occurrence. While the youngster admitted such violent acts are not prevalent at her school, she was happy to know that programmes such as “Boxing Beyond The Ring” can assist in providing a heightened awareness for females, especially when crime and other discrepancies reign supreme in TT’s now sick society.

“Ria makes it so easy for us to feel at home and we’re comfortable learning more about ourselves. I’m so tiny but the confidence I have built up now, I feel better about myself. Don’t judge the book by the cover,” Ramsamooj joked. All in all, every woman present at Ramnarine’s session yesterday made an open plea to her to continue hosting events such as these. They expressed delight in her initiative and welcomed women from all walks of life to consider getting involved in activities such as this, in an effort to broaden their mental and physical horizons. Saturday is the final class day of “Boxing Beyond The Ring” and participants will graduate and receive certification upon the completion of this course one week prior (March 7) at the Fine Line Gym. The graduation boxes off from 5-7 pm.

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