Latest update November 5th, 2024 1:00 AM
Sep 10, 2008 Sports
By Edison Jefford
It is conventional philosophy in many academic factions of the regional Diaspora that the Caribbean produces talent for export. The same is true about the belief of the region’s top sportsmen and women on the international circuits.
The ideology that generated the birth of the Caribbean Games in 1999 was the facilitation of Caribbean athletes at a distinguished regional forum so that one ship does not continue to rise on the shores of the Caribbean Sea.
Jamaica, for instance, is a renowned nucleus of athletics and self–professed ‘sprint capital of the world’. As a result, the reasoning behind the Caribbean Games is to allow what the Bible calls ‘iron sharpening iron’.
So to counter the conviction of top athletes that they have a more viable option overseas, the concept of a Caribbean Games is to create a circuit in the region for both athleticism and patronage at the highest possible level.
The Government of Trinidad and Tobago had submitted a proposal to CARICOM in 1999 for the establishment of the Games. The document was surrendered at a meeting of the Ministers of Sport, convened in Barbados.
The initial concerns were the financial packages for top athletes and rewards for countries interested in participating at the event. Like placing the ‘cart before the horse’, the issue of incentive became an immediate subject.
Sport and political administrators felt that the Games ought to bring in huge sums of prize monies to be deemed successful. The fundamental mechanisms necessary for the staging of the event did not directly engage discussions.
Fortunately, the proposal for the Games came at the time when all the National Olympic Committees (NOC) of the Caribbean were involved in the formation of the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC).
The initial inclusive model of CANOC focused on the English–speaking Caribbean but was later extended to include the NOC’s of Aruba, Netherlands Antilles, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Haiti and Cuba.
With CANOC up and running, the organisation immediately assumed management of the Caribbean Games, insisting that there must be a minimum of five sports disciplines with a maximum of seven. A draft plan was born.
The legitimate intervention of the unified Olympic associations of the Caribbean to move the concept of the Games beyond ‘politicising’ underscored the principle belief that sport and Government officials must work communally.
Plans for the Games proceeded with set dates and identified venues but CANOC is yet to disclose precisely how they will deal with the challenges associated with rewards for the various participating countries and athletes.
It is no secret that the appearance fees for the region’s best athletes are extremely high and beyond the capacity of CANOC and CARICOM, who are both hopeful that patriotism will supplant the desire for financial returns.
Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell, Veronica Campbell–Brown, Richard Thompson etcetera, are all targets of the organisers. The aim is to create a semi–Olympic atmosphere for the region’s most dominant and emerging athletes.
Since it was Trinidad and Tobago’s Government that tabled the proposal for the Games, the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) was given the first option of hosting the 2009 Games with Cuba hosting the second.
The Government of Trinidad and Tobago has so far committed TT$35 million, which is approximately US$5.6 million, towards the successful staging of the Games. It has also pledged to underwrite the various costs of the Games.
(This is the first article of a three–part series on the upcoming Caribbean Games. The second part will focus on the 2009 Games).
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