It will be a one-off holiday. Like when TT qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the first time but hopefully not last time.

Does the general public agree with this move? Shouldn’t the holiday be permanent? Other major groups have recurring public holidays.

Contrary to public belief, people benefit from public holidays.

Some work for premium rates.

Some get time to rest and do things with their families. The country does not shut down.

This is not about the number of public holidays we have. It is about celebrating our diversity.

We are a cosmopolitan nation.

Where every creed and race finds an equal place.

Make the holiday permanent.

AV RAMPERSAD Princes Town

The ball hit the bottom edge of the bat, rattled the stumps and the bowler Yasir Shah ran a 50-metre dash in a flash, sliding onto the field as his teammates deliriously pounced on him to celebrate Pakistan’s first ever Test series win in the West Indies — in 59 years.

ESPN Cricinfo described Gabriel’s shot selection as a “brain fade.” Gabriel, though, performed brilliantly with the ball by capturing 15 wickets at a miserly average of 18.80 in the three-Test series.

Scribes can say “we fought hard,” but let us face some hard facts: This result was our sixth straight series defeat and our 13th Test loss in the last 20 matches.

Roston Chase stamped his class by scoring 403 runs, averaging 100 in an olympian effort. No other West Indian batsman scored more than 200 runs.

The debutants Hetmyer and Singh aggregated 159 runs.

Jamaican Jermaine Blackwood was relegated to water bottle duties, despite his Test average of 32, including one 100 and nine 50s.

West Indies has been ranked eighth in the ICC world Test rankings for as long as I can remember. What’s next? Where are we going? Where have we gone? The relationship between the hierarchy of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), key players and regional governments has deteriorated badly over the past several months, even years.

In a January 1, 2015, newspaper article titled “Rousseau: WICB failing to follow constitution,” former WICB president Pat Rousseau heaped blame on current WICB president Dave Cameron for the exclusion of Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Daren Sammy from the One-Day International team to South Africa.

Rousseau called the omission “victimisation” and remarked that “the current board continues to fail to follow its own constitution,” adding that “all matters of player discipline must be referred to the disciplinary committee appointed by the board.” It is paramount that the trust between players and the board be restored expeditiously and egos on both sides be discarded into the hallows of hope for West Indies Test cricket to move forward. It has been far too long.

The words of David Rudder resonate in my mind: Soon we must take a side or be left in the rubble In a divided world that don’t need islands no more Are we doomed forever to be at someone’s mercy Little keys can open up mighty doors Rally round the West Indies now and forever.

REZA ABASALI El Socorro

The autopsy showed that death was caused by acute oxygen deprivation.

Yesterday, the result of the autopsy was made available to officers of the Homicide Investigations Bureau and a 43-year-old relative of Mohan, who was detained shortly after her body was discovered on Thursday, was immediately released from custody.

Mohan’s body was identified yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre in St James by her brother and a female relative.

Sources revealed that Mohan and her husband were undergoing counselling and their last counselling session was on Wednesday night. Relatives told police that Mohan and her husband had their differences but she was never a victim of domestic violence.

Yesterday, Dr Alexandrov told Newsday he was able to determine that suicide was the cause of death due to several reasons such as Mohan’s body not having any mark of violence to suggest she had fought with an attacker.

He also noted that there was no broken skin under her nails. However, tissue samples were removed and sent for further tests.

On Thursday, Mohan’s husband Dave Rampersad, 43, left their Mafeking Village, Mayaro home for work in Guayaguayare. He returned home a around 10.30 am and discovered Mohan lying on her bed with a plastic bag over her face. Rampersad removed the bag and found another plastic wrapped around her face.

Rampersad removed the plastic and checked for a pulse.

He then contacted the police.

This was the response provided by Finance Minister Colm Imbert to a question posed yesterday by Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal in the House of Representatives. Imbert, who is also acting Prime Minister, said the amount of money still to be paid to the company is $2,471,721.13.

He said 12 audit reviews have been completed to date. These include a review of Caribbean Airlines Ltd’s (CAL) domestic airbridge subsidy, Community Improvements Services Ltd (CISL), National Flour Mills (NFM) Financial Year 2015 and the National Lotteries Control Board due diligence audit for an international firm in the gaming industry. Among six audit reviews still ongoing are reviews into TTPost for September 2011 audit services, National Helicopter Services 2015 and 2016 financial statements and the National Insurance Board (NIB).

The costs for completed and ongoing audits are: CAL, $474,468.75; CISL, $336,055,28; Education Facilities Company Ltd, $1,786,878.10; Nedco, $393,936.45; NFM, $2,110,421; NHSL, $299,200; Taurus Services, $179,718.75; NP, $1,559,110.63, TTPost, $863,521; WASA, $465,125.63; NIB, $414,414, and TTEC, $500,000.

Overprotective parenting is moderately associated with childhood delinquency. A more moderate and balanced level of monitoring and consistent, reasonable disciplinary limits have proven to create low levels of delinquency.

Modern parenting trends favour an overprotective parenting style, based on adults’ unrealistic and illogical fears of the dangers faced by their children.

The children of overprotective, rigid parents fail to systematically learn from their mistakes and, therefore, fail to become independent.

The result of that is an immature adult who defers to his or her parents for even the most basic decision-making and continues to live at home well into his or her adulthood.

When these dependent young adults attempt new tasks, they tend to fail because they have not developed fundamental skills as children.

This lack of competency leads to feelings of poor self-esteem, lack of self-confidence and increased dependency.

The children of overprotective, strict parents display an inability to manage even daily stressors, have poor time management skills, lack creativity and fail to enjoy new experiences.

Children raised by overprotective, strict parents report having trouble as adults in maintaining happy and fulfilling relationships.

Some children, for example, are still giving large sums of money to their parents, which interferes with their ability to contribute financially to their own future families. Others cannot make decisions in their own marriages, instead relying on their parents to make important life-changing decisions for their own families.

Everyone seems to come to the conclusion that overprotective parenting is bound to fail.

Most agree it is probably not good for children.

And yet, the trend toward this parenting style grows stronger each year.

Maintaining a closer eye and focusing most of our attention on our children may simply be the new trend in this age of irrational parenting.

We’re having far fewer children because of financial challenges, so it seems to make sense that we would treasure and have a desire to hold on to them to a more obsessive degree.

But common sense — and even a healthy amount of science — indicates that taking a slight step back is the best course of action.

SIMON WRIGHT Chaguanas

Two tournaments were carded on this day (cricket and football), but rain forced the cricket tournament to be cancelled.

Scotiabank’s journey to winning the football tournament was not an easy one. On the way, they claimed victories over Central Bank, First Citizens and Guardian Group; but suffered losses to ANSA Financial Services and walked away with draws against Republic Bank and Unit Trust.

Scotiabank got 11 points during the preliminary stage, before defeating First Citizens 1-0 in the final. Unit Trust finished third, followed by ANSA Financial Services and Guardian Group. Republic Bank and Central Bank were sixth and seventh respectively.

“Today was a long day, but once again the strength and spirit of a Scotiabanker came through and we were able to bring forth the victory in the finals,” said Scotiabank’s excited captain Ayinde Fraser.

On a day when the conditions were wet and slippery because of the early morning rain, strength, persistence and focus were definitely pre-requisites to prevailing and excelling at the competition.

Scotiabank’s Ravi Persad performed exceptionally, finding the net four times to lead his side to victory. The First Citizen’s duo of James Brown and Kevon Durham, scored four goals each to assist the green machine in holding on to second place.

The competition was played on a hockey-sized field with two games being played simultaneously. However, because of the weather, the referees were forced to decrease the playing time for each game from 15 minutes to 10 minutes, to allow for the completion of the games.

Brewer scored 48 of his team’s 60 points as ISPS defeated Queen’s Royal College (QRC) 60-49 at the Jean Pierre Complex in Mucurapo.

Liam French contributed eight points for ISPS, while Nwadike Felix (18) and Antonio Ambris (14) were the top scorers for QRC.

On Tuesday, Fatima outlasted QRC 36-29 in the boys Under-17 category. Adrian Sangster scored 12 points to lead the way for Fatima, while Kobee James netted 11 points for the Royalians.

Fatima were also victorious in the Under-20 boys division, recording a 47-39 win over Belmont Boys. Adam Tang-Nian top scored for Fatima with 13 points and Nkosi Corbin had 12 points for Belmont.

In the open girls category, South East Port of Spain defeated Malick Secondary by default.

On Saturday, he lost 11-1, 11-5, 11-1, 11-8 to 14-yearold Jacobo Vahnish of Panama and, later on the day, he went under 11-9, 11-6, 11-6, 11-6 to Brazil’s Guilherme Teodoro.

Among the guests are tai chi master and tai chi teacher Han Lipeng, along with Jao Jian and his team performing the Chinese Lion Dance. Rollins Alleyne and Dr Che Corbin are two members of the Barbados contingent coming to Trinidad for the event.

Sparring and self defence are two of the disciplines that will feature, while trophies, medals and hampers will be given to the top athletes.

Competitors must pay $250 in advance and $275 at the door, while spectators pay $40. Tomorrow, workshops on wushu kung fu broad sword and tai chi chuan will be held. For further information contact 354-1114 or 354-0464.

Twenty four teams have entered and will be vying for top honours and a chance to take home the lion’s share of the $10,000 prize money at stake.

There will be an opening ceremony, including the march past which will be taken by Vidia Gopiesingh, Member of Parliament (MP) for Oropouche West, who will also deliver the feature address.

The fans will be treated to an exhibition match featuring last year’s finalists __ Mix-Up (defending champions) and Ocean Mist (runners-up).

Allan Umraw will captain Mix-up while Brandon Ganga will be at the helm of Ocean Mist.

Meanwhile, the Oropouche West Premier League committee is expecting that more teams will enter the women’s section, before the June 21 registration deadline.