Mad scramble as Bermudans renege Carifta transport plan

NASSAU: Four Caribbean nations now face a mad scramble to make travel arrangements for their squads attending the 33rd CARIFTA Games Track and Field Championship in Bermuda over the Easter weekend after the Bahamas Ministry of Sports took over the arrangements to transport their national team. Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Haiti are all now faced with making last-minute arrangements after the Bahamas Ministry of Sports decided they would not give the Bahamas Amateur Athletic Association a US $40,000 grant that would have assisted in chartering a jet to take the five teams to the Games.

“In January, the BAAA had made arrangements with four countries to transport their teams to the Bahamas, along with the Bahamian team to Bermuda, which is located in the northern Caribbean, and an expensive island to get to from this part of the Caribbean,” the Nassau Guardian reported on Saturday. “With this in mind, the BAAA contacted neighbouring Caribbean countries who would also find themselves in an expensive predicament getting their team to Bermuda, and came to an agreement to get the teams to Bermuda on the same jet, which would have been cost effective for all.” Speaking in Parliament last week, Bahamas Minister of Sports, Neville Wisdom, said he only cared about getting the Bahamian team to Bermuda, and his ministry would absorb all costs associated with the team’s travel. “Without the grant from the ministry, the BAAA could not go ahead with the plans they had made and had to inform the other countries that the plans they had made earlier this year would have to be cancelled, and that each country would have to find their own way in getting to Bermuda,” the Guardian reported.

Last Tuesday, Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association President Patrick Anderson wrote Desmond Bannister, his Bahamian counterpart, to express the disappointment of the JAAA and the people of Jamaica for what he termed the “uncaring behaviour recently displayed by the Bahamian Minister of Sports in the House of Parliament.” “The honourable minister has now seen it fit to cancel this arrangment after plans have already been put in place,” he wrote. “We had committed to this arrangement, based on our high regard for the BAAA and the people of The Bahamas. It would also have been the most affordable method to transport our team to the Games. “We are thus appalled that the Minister of Sports within the Bahamian Government would seek to embarrass the BAAA and place them in disrepute in the international athletic arena by the late cancellation of our arrangments.”

He added: “It is horrifying to note that the Jamaican team is now stranded, and only after the inconsiderate acts of the Bahamian Ministry of Sports. “We are not accustomed to (being) treated in this manner by our Bahamian partners, and it is our hope that the honour of such a high office as that of the Minister of Sports will be once again fulfilled by the reconsideration of all the details and implications of this arrangement.” His letter was copied to Dr Amadeo Francis, president of the North American, Central American and Caribbean region; Victor Lopez, president of the Central American and Caribbean region; Portia Simpson-Miller, the Jamaica Minister of Sports; and Delano Franklin, the Jamaica Minister of Foreign Affairs. Bannister indicated he has also received letters expressing disappointment from his counterparts in Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Haiti.