Revisiting our Sports Awards

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The decision to recognise some outstanding personalities around the Caribbean during the current Cricket World Cup (CWC2007), while being in some ways commendable, must have let many of our people totally confused. Here in St Vincent and the Grenadines one is not at all certain that the people who were honoured even knew what it was all about. To add to their confusion, they were seemingly unaware of what they were supposed to do on the different days during the warm up matches.

At the risk of being controversial it does appear that the awards actually presented in many cases across the region should perhaps have been national awards at the governmental level. In some cases we may suggest that they should have been Caricom awards. Beyond this they should have been limited to the cricketing fraternity since the occasion was very special to the game and its contributors in the region.The fact remains however that the awards presented reflected the more general malaise that plagues the West Indies Cricket Board and the game in the region. There is more confusion than anything else.
National Sports Personality
In February of this year the National Sports Council (NSC) once more organised and administered the Annual National Sports Awards Ceremony sponsored by the National Lotteries Authority.
Following the concerns raised by several Vincentians the NSC apparently opted to introduce a new category, that of International Sports Personality of the Year. This was to be distinguished from the National Sports Personality.
The NSC’s decision must be critically analysed since it raises a number of important issues.
One would have thought that when we speak of a National Sports Award we could only be referring to an award being given to an outstanding national of St Vincent and the Grenadines.