Gross sporting imbalance in SVG

The content of this week's Column may seem all too familiar but it is intended to serve as a telling reminder of the gross lopsidedness in our nation's sporting development process, if one does exist at all.

CWC2007
The decision of the local authorities here to take up the Cricket World Cup 2007 package of warm up matches that was rejected by Bermuda largely because of the outcome of its cost-benefit analysis remains one of the most flawed in the history, not just of sport, but of all St Vincent and the Grenadines. The only grouping to whom the decision made any sense, even in the aftermath of CWC2007, is that of those immediately involved in the organisation of it. To them the decision was great and the opportunity to be part of the CWC2007 was more important than anything they would probably experience during their lifetime.
CWC2007 has come and gone and the much-touted legacy is yet to reveal itself. The main Arnos Vale Playing field is still under repairs. The damage done to the retaining wall behind the newly constructed double-decker stand is only now being repaired. There was no public reaction on the part of the Organising Committee akin to that which it delivered when embarrassingly removing Gibson Construction from the site for tardiness on the project a few short weeks before the commencement of the warm up matches and with the vast majority of the work already completed. The cruel nature of national politics as currently construed did not permit such an outcry given the contractors involved in the work on the retaining wall that so readily collapsed under the pressure of early rains. There was then no huffing and puffing. It was all about problems associated with nature.
The double-decker stand itself is not yet completed with work on the storage facilities to be accommodated on the ground floor being delayed until the retaining wall has been completed. The proposed ring road is also delayed pending the completion of the river-works. The public has not been privy to the length of time work is to be competed in reality.