Top athletes must be consistent

THE EDITOR: According to a daily newspaper our PM asks Brian Lara — What do you want? In response to this clearly idiotic question there were numerous very stupid answers which were aired on a local talk show. As I missed some of those phone-ins did not hear answers like “Make Lara the President” or “Rename Port-of-Spain Brian Lara City.” As the saying goes, “Ask a stupid question...” Lara being a sensible person must have statesmanlike answers like, “Create a National Institute of Sport so that we can produce dozens of Laras, Bovells, Yorkes, Ames etc, and as a very good side effect put a serious dent in our out of control deviants. After all, many countries including Australia and Cuba have created such Institutes and of course, have produced hundreds of world class sports persons.

Personally, I believe that we only achieve world recognition and respect by consistently producing top notch athletes, not by producing the occasional cricketer or sprinter or swimmer and then deifying them by rushing to name boulevards or mountains or helicopters after them. To my mind this deification is so childish, backward and petty especially when the rest of the world view us as a clown nation in this regard. Even in dotish America we don’t hear of a Serena Williams or Andy Roddick or Michael Jordan airplane or city square. Athletes in other countries are allowed to mature before deification. No Claude Noel Highways or such like. Brian Lara is one of the best examples of a world class athlete and should be a much needed inspiration to our youth. Let us not wring the neck of the golden goose. We need a team of Brian Laras. One is insufficient.

M HOTIN
St James