Football truly unites Caribbean
Sunday, December 31 2006
THE YEAR in Sports 2007 is already off to a flying start. The Haitian football team arrived here last Wednesday to prepare for their participation in the upcoming Digicel Caribbean Cup.
Our own team is already hard in training for this event.
The TT cricket team is also preparing to defend their regional titles, and of course, we have the Cricket World Cup being played in the West Indies in March.
Our female netballers go off to compete in the World Netball Finals in New Zealand, and our men?s hockey team is scheduled to play in the Hockey Indoor World Cup, albeit they are under a cloud of dissent and player withdrawals.
Let us hope that some compromise and accommodation can be found to assure that our best possible team represents us, although we all know that dissent, even resolved dissent, can destroy sports teams.
The first major event in TT will be the Digicel Caribbean Cup Finals, hosted here from January 12 through 23. Seven countries? Cuba, St Vincent, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Barbados, Guyana, and either Haiti, Bermuda or the Dominican Republic will join TT in the Finals.
Haiti and Bermuda will participate in a preliminary play-off competition, the winner staying on for the Finals, the losers going home.
The Digicel Group, already the title sponsors of the West Indies cricket team, is deepening its commitment to the Caribbean with its partnership of the Caribbean Football Union Flagship Tournament.
In 2004, it sponsored the Digicel Caribbean Cup for the first time, with group play-offs ending in a four-team tournament in Barbados in January 2005.
This year the finals comprise eight teams, and the finalists represent a wide cross-section of our Caribbean history. We of the English-speaking Caribbean speak liberally of the unity which West Indies cricket brings to the region.
But the ?West Indies? as we know it is only a small part of the Caribbean. The ?Caribbean? includes Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic and the French and former Dutch islands, as well as Suriname and Cayenne.
These non-English speaking countries probably remain unaware that the ?West Indies? are hosting a Cricket World Cup in 2007. However, they were all fully aware, and supportive of our Soca Warriors? presence in Germany last June, and of the Reggae Boyz? presence at France ?98.
While we can never expect a Caribbean football team to compete on the world stage like the West Indies cricket team does, the regional football tournaments, from under-15 to seniors, and including our women?s teams, bring a level of unity of their own.
Young Caribbean players meet and compete in the regional tournaments, and the best move on to Europe to play with or against each other in major club competition.
We should all acknowledge our appreciation to Digicel for uniting both the ?West Indies? and the ?Caribbean? under the banners of world sport.
The West Indies will probably choose their Cricket World Cup team from the best players of the upcoming regional competition.
TT is well-placed to have a good share of selectees on the squad, and this comment is no more ?insular? than, say Arsenal being proud to provide most of the players for the French national team.
Unfortunately, we in TT will not see the Windies live, nor will we host any of the matches after the Group stages, having surrendered our chances to host more events.
I am convinced that Trinis will fully support the group matches here, but I am disturbed that there seem to be no plans to capitalise on the event, to host Fan Fairs with outdoor screens so that Trinis can watch the Final ? West Indies against Australia, say, in large groups, with music, food, and merchandise on sale. The Jean Pierre Complex would be ideal for such a setting, where cricket fans could spend the day supporting their teams. Other good venues would be Skinner Park, the Arima Velodrome, and Shaw Park or Dwight Yorke Stadium in Tobago.
I can envisage a mini-Carnival along with the matches on big outdoor screens. This is not difficult to organise, but it is not necessarily the function of the CWC Organisers.
I do feel the CWC would support and approve of such initiatives. Sadly, we are not an entrepreneurial people when it comes to understanding the business potential of sports events.
And after Cricket World Cup, the top four football teams from the Digicel Caribbean Cup will be heading for the CONCACAF Gold Cup, in the USA in July.
Assuming (naturally!) that TT is one of these, this will provide a preview of our potential for the World Cup Qualifiers which will start in 2008.
We all know that we will not get our European-based players for the Digicel Cup, but they will be available for the Gold Cup, in July.
However, those players will have to compete for their places, as we all expect the local and USA-based players to stake very strong claims for permanent selection.
All this is good reason to turn out and support the Warriors of the future next month.
So cricket, football, netball, hockey, or athletics, boxing and swimming, all of our sports have a big year ahead. Let us all be there with them!