Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee  (TTOC)  president Brian Lewis held a very positive meeting with newly appointed Minister of Sports Brent Sancho and his permanent secretary Richard Oliver this morning (Friday 6th February, 2015) at the Ministry of Sports' headquarters on Abercromby Street. Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SPORTT)  acting CEO Adrian Raymond was also in attendance. At the meeting, Lewis and Sancho discussed the Pan Am Games, Rio 2016, and the Elite Athlete Assistance Programme. "The discussions were candid and solution-oriented and the importance of the Ministry of Sport (MOS) , Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SPORTT) and the TTOC working together to improve good goverance in  national sporting organisations (NSOs) was also emphasised,  "said the TTOC boss. Lewis also shared his view  with the Minister and PS  that no NGB, NSO or club should be able to obtain MOS funding without satisfying proper governance guidelines including audited accounts and properly accounting for previous funding received.

Lewis said  the meeting was constructive and positive . " The TTOC gave the Minister and PS the assurance that the TTOC will share information and knowledge with the MOS , Minister and PS in respect of global issues and solutions. Both the Minister and PS are very clear about what are the issues and challenges, " Lewis said. He said transparency and accountability-good governance  and putting the athletes best interests first figured prominently in the hour-long meeting.

HYPOCRISY. This was how former West Indies Players Association (WIPA) president Dinanath Ramnarine yesterday described the recent nominations of Joel Garner and Baldath Mahabir for the posts of president and vice-president respectively, in the wake of forthcoming West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) elections next month.

Ramnarine thinks that these nominations should be openly rejected by the Caribbean’s cricketing bodies as he feels the pair failed to distinguish themselves as WICB Directors and must share the blame for the decline of Windies cricket due to the poor functioning of the regional governing body. He said the most recent administrative scandal was the players’ strike of the India Tour (October, 2014) and a looming US$42 million bill from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

According to the former national cricketer, Garner and Mahabir are WICB members and together had a part to play in the events leading up to the players’ strike in India. Following the team’s actions in October, the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) executive committee also threw their support behind the WICB, unequivocally condemning the players for their actions on tour in a resolution.

However, recent newspaper reports during the past week indicated that the TTCB executive met on Tuesday and “deliberated long and hard over the events that took place recently in West Indies cricket and it was decided that too many mistakes were made concerning the aborted Indian tour and that Cameron and Nanton had to be held accountable.”

Responding to these recent happenings, Ramnarine explained, “it’s wrong and hypocritical for them (Garner, Mahabir) to come across like this (for nomination) now. Because they are now distancing themselves from Cameron and Nanton due to how they handled the situation with the BCCI in an improper way.

“I sat down with Azim Bassarath, Baldath Mahabir, Manohar Ramsaran and all the people within the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board and they condemned the players without even understanding the other side and accepted no responsibility whatsoever. Because the question was raised, whether the WICB was at fault at all, and they didn’t think so.” The former national and West Indies leg-break bowler believes the entire WICB committee disqualified themselves on the basis of their performance and how they have run regional cricket during their tenure.

“They have proven to be unsuitable for these leadership positions because collectively and individually they have demonstrated that they are incapable of defending West Indies cricket. If fact, what they have done is taken the sport 20 years back. What is the sense putting the same people to do the same thing and expect a different result?” Ramnarine questioned.

Asked what may be a possible solution to this fiasco, Ramnarine called for good governance of all regional cricketing boards, starting with the WICB and into other Caribbean bodies.

“It comes down to the governance of cricket and it comes back to the root cause which are the territorial boards. Territorial boards do not have a proper governance structure. For example, the TTCB has 12 outgoing votes. Twelve people do not put themselves up to be elected when they have an outgoing vote. That is 50 percent of the votes that you need to win any election.

“This shows that they are supported by an undemocratic, unfair and unconstitutional constitution that they have benefitted from and it’s almost impossible to move the incumbents, not because you don’t want to move them, but the constitution is set in a way that it is impossible for them to move. It’s like asking themselves, to remove themselves,” he added.

Ramnarine also noted that the West Indies team has not been playing up to par due to the fact that the Caribbean’s management and administration of the sport have failed across the board. He also hailed Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) president Brian Lewis who recently reiterated the significance of good and transparent governance.

He concluded, “from my understanding, the BCCI is going to deal with Cameron because he upset them in a tremendous way. I don’t think that Garner and Mahabir have the negotiating skills to bring the WICB out of this. These guys have been around for a long time now and what do they have to show for this time?

“Regional cricket is going in the opposite direction. The TTCB supported it and it is absolutely hypocritical to come now and try to distance themselves in pursuit of power.

“The other regional cricket boards should take note, distance themselves and reject all four of them (Cameron, Nanton, Garner and Mahabir).”

Efforts to contact Bassarath and Mahabir yesterday proved futile.

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As the debate continues over the omission of Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard from the West Indies World Cup squad in Australia and New Zealand, the Express today publishes a letter to the Editor which makes a case for on cricketing grounds, the two players should have been included in the squad.

Marsha Mark-Baird’s Road to Rio campaign has begun.
The two-time Olympian recently celebrated her 41st birthday, and will be 42 when the 2016 Olympic Games is staged in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. But Mark-Baird is not daunted by the challenge of attaining the qualifying standard in the gruelling seven-event heptathlon. In fact, she has already competed at four meets in 2015, following up on her comeback season last year.
Mark-Baird’s latest outing was last Friday, at the Mountain State Games in Idaho, USA. She produced a 5.87 metres leap for second spot in the women’s long jump. And in the shot put, the US-based Trinidad and Tobago athlete was 14th with an 11.55m throw.
Two weekends ago, in Colorado, Mark-Baird finished second in the Air Force Invitational women’s indoor pentathlon. She earned 3,679 points in the five-discipline event. Her best showing came in the 60m hurdles, Mark-Baird getting to the line in 8.85 seconds to earn 941 points. She cleared the bar at 1.58m in the high jump, threw 10.66m in the shot put, jumped 5.84m in the long jump, and returned a time of two minutes, 33.28 seconds in the 800m.
At the January 16-17 Ed Jacoby Invite, in Idaho, Mark-Baird secured sixth spot in the women’s 60m hurdles final, the veteran athlete getting to the line in 9.25 seconds. She had clocked 9.16 in the qualifying round. Mark-Baird was 18th in the 800m in 2:39.23, and 29th in the shot put with a 10.65m effort.
And in her season-opener, at the Brigham Young University (BYU) Cougar Collegiate Indoor Invitational, in Utah, Mark-Baird finished fifth in the women’s high jump with a 1.58m clearance.
At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, in Australia, Mark-Baird was 22nd in the women’s heptathlon with 5,627 points. Four years later, at the Athens Games, in Greece, she accumulated 5,962 points--which is still the national record--to finish 25th. If the evergreen heptathlete has her way, the T&T standard will be 6,000-plus by the time Rio 2016 is over.

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In one of his first official meetings since being appointed Minister of Sport, Senator Brent Sancho reviewed plans yesterday morning for the opening of the three national venues for cycling, tennis and aquatics with executives of each of the respective National Governing Bodies (NGBs).
The meeting was also attended by outgoing Minister of Sport, Dr. Rupert Griffith. Each NGB has outlined a schedule of events to coincide with the opening of each mega facility. The events are designed to showcase the talent within the various disciplines, promote Trinidad and Tobago as a destination as well as market the modern facilities which will be accessible to elite athletes, local, regional and international.
According to a release from the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago (Sportt) Minister Sancho was pleased with the progress being made in each discipline and was careful to impress upon the executives the need to get value for money. He also was keen to learn about opportunities to secure investment from the private sector, for these events and beyond, so as to wean the NGBs off their heavy reliance on state funding.
Minister Sancho further stressed the need to increase participation in sports and improve the level of adjudication, officiating and use of timing and other technical systems so that future hosting of events may be driven by local expertise. Comprehensive training programmes in these areas will take place prior to opening of the facilities, the release stated.
Minister Sancho will conduct private site visits to each of the new national facilities over the weekend.
The National Cycling Velodrome in Couva and National Tennis Centre in Tacarigua are scheduled to be completed in June while the National Aquatics Centre, also in Couva, is due to come on stream in July/August.

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