Our flags are still flying

Recently we saw our cricketers — winning the double — the Regional One Day Tournament and then the conventional game — keeping the Carib Beer Trophies in Carib Country. The relatively small crowd was ecstatic in their support and in their victory celebrations, with our flags being carried and waved proudly during the players’ victory lap. The media headlines and front page photographs were the only positive or happy news we have seen on our front pages for weeks — so thank God for the cricket victories and good news! Then, on Wednesday it was announced that our Brian Lara had been asked to take up the mantle of West Indies captaincy — and he accepted. This was coupled with the news that the WIBC and WIPA had finally come to agreement on Player Retainer Contracts — so our best (and I say this hesitantly these days!) players will be available for the pending series against Zimbabwe and India.

Our junior athletes kept our flag flying proudly in Guadeloupe — picking up a handsome haul of medals. We have seen, over the past few years, a renaissance in athletics (and not just in our traditional strengths — 100 metres to 400 metres). Our boys and girls are doing well in distance events, and we are now World Class (take note Mr Manning!) in the Women’s Shot Put and Hammer Throw.

Here’s hoping that our country can appreciate the potential value of these young athletes and invest meaningfully in their development, so we will see our flag flying in Beijing 2008 — the next Olympic Games. Please do not leave this investment to the Sport Company of TT alone — corporate Trinidad. Earn your right to place your logo on some medallists’ head by showing your support now, and then your pride will be genuine — not just PR-based.

But of course, it was football that started this proud flag-waving trend. It started slowly, back in 2004, when TT began the long — and sometimes lonely — journey to Germany. Following dramatic victories over Guatemala, Mexico and Bahrain, the people of this country — in spite of the murders and kidnappings and politics — were closer to each other than at anytime in our history. Thank God for the football — yes!

So thank God — or Benny Hinn, or Portia Simpson; but not Patrick Manning — that we have a couple of months of good sporting action ahead, to keep our flags flying high and to distract us from the grim and embarrassing reality that our politics and governance have become. Try to be aware of the unbelievable reality of our politics even as you support our cricket and football teams.

We just had a visit from Jamaica’s new PM — former Sports Minister Portia Simpson-Miller (take heart Roger!) from the Reggae Boyz/France ’98 days. The first Jamaican female PM’s visit coincided with the conviction and sentencing of our former PM and current (or immediate past) Leader of the Opposition. The Jamaican visit at least allowed Patrick Manning to be occupied with other matters and he was almost gracious in his limited comments on Mr Panday’s conviction and sentencing. The Jamaican PM was shown all of our new “development” projects and she dutifully endorsed Mr Manning’s smelter plants. We do not know if she convinced Mr Manning to place “men of God” on all State boards. However, Manning should tread carefully here. He is, by his own admission, fettered by his narrow religious beliefs, and one wonders if he would consider pundits and imams as persons suitable to represent God on State Boards.

While there was no mention of any Opposition Leader — whoever that might have been — being invited to meet the Jamaican Prime Minister, could her presence here have influenced part of the UNC to name Kamla Persad-Bissessar as Leader of the opposition? Probably not! Clearly part of the UNC wants to continue their humiliation of Mr Dookeran for reasons never stated, and the choice of Kamla may well have been “anybody but Dookeran.” I have been critical of Mr Dookeran’s acceptance of this abusive relationship, but now I feel he should hold on, and see if his faction of the UNC can eventually prevail. Clearly, the UNC is fighting for its soul-in a battle between those who will “sleep with the devil” and those who will not.

There have been no mass outpourings of support or sympathy for Mr Panday. What does that tell us? Yes, rallies are being “organised” days after the conviction and sentencing, but there was no spontaneous reaction. Anyway, I hold my tongue, and my pen, on the verdict and the sentence. I await the outcome of other pending trials before I say my piece. Hopefully, justice will be seen to be blind? In the meantime, all that we can do is watch the passing parade — bacchanal, corruption, arrogance and incompetence — which continues to disgrace our country. At least for a while, we have the option of supporting our Soca warriors and our Windies cricketers. The full Warrior Squad (minus Shaka who will make us proud in the English FA Final on May 13th) will take on Peru at Hasely Crawford on May 10th, immediately followed by two One Day Internationals at the Oval. There is good reason to bring out our flags all week long!

The match against Peru is the final home game before World Cup Germany. But it is also the last match which Russell Latapy will play for TT at home. We owe him, and all the others, a tremendous send-off as they embark on their historic journey. I know that the wave of support we will give them all will carry them through the matches against Wales, Slovenia and Czech Republic and into Germany. And in Germany, millions of “new” Trinis — who have never heard of PNM or UNC will be waving our flags and wearing our colours, in support of the Soca Warriors. Here at home we will be a people transformed, basking in the togetherness that only our sport can bring — as we joyously support, and in-deed celebrate, the encounters with Sweden, England and Paraguay.and beyond. Notwithstanding the embarrassment we feel for our politicians, we will still wave our flags proudly.