Apprentice Kumar Bissoon has lodged an appeal with the Trinidad and Tobago Racing Authority against a three-day suspension landed for reckless riding on Saturday.
This was aboard Sugar Mike in the Allowance feature on the Arima Race Club Day Eight card at Santa Rosa Park, Arima. The lightweight, who was granted his licence in the second half of the last racing season, confirmed yesterday that he appealed the decision of the Stewards of the Arima Race Club. Bissoon said he was confident of a reversal of the decision after viewing the incident on film in the conference room of the TTRA. The ARC stewards are Pierpont Scott, Richard Halfide, Cedric Coussement and Roy Padmore. The apprentice said he watched the replay of the incident from different angles with a number of jockeys and trainers, who all felt the pile-up was not caused by his mount and did not warrant the disqualification of Sugar Mike or the severity of sentence passed.
Bissoon admitted Sugar Mike drifted slightly up the stretch but did not interfere with any of the other runners in the feature contested on the sand course. He blamed the infringement squarely on My Son John, which he claimed came across first time starter Miss Lover Lover, causing her to clip the drifter’s heels before unshipping her rider. Bissoon further revealed the film showed Miss Lover Lover drifted inwards when struck by jockey Wilmur Galviz. At that point of the 1000 metres dash he said, My Son John, with Lorne Keizer up drifted and took the ground of Miss Lover Lover causing her to dislodge her jockey. “At no time did my horse come into contact with Miss Lover Lover or impeded the chances of any runner in the event,” said the 50-kilo claimer. Bissoon cited trainer Grant Lourenco and jockeys Wendell Bharath, and Larry Munoz, who have viewed the film. He said they are willing to share their views at any further enquiry.
Newsday scored another first when romping home with three of the four tipsters’ awards at stake offered during the 2002 racing season by the Arima Race Club.
The competition, which started on New Year’s Day was contested over 36 racing days. The knowledgeable experts at Newsday took honours with the most wins, points, and longest shot categories. Newsday were heading for a clean sweep of all categories but was denied the distinction in the very last race of the competition by Dancing Brave (Andre Baptiste), who landed Piece Of Cake to surpass longtime leader Nap Selector, who went into the final day with a $96 lead. The 95.5 FM radio commentator got home in the dying stages of the monetary section by $4 to prevent the Newsday sweep.
David C (David Carew), son of West Indies cricket selector Joey Carew, won the categories for the most wins and points. He finshed 10 wins clear from nearest rival Sizzla of the Trinidad Express and was a distant 50 points better than Earl J (also Express) in the other leg. Team captain Nap Selector (Arnold De Castro), who was edged out of the prize money, took home the award for the biggest priced winner of the season. The Rajah (Robert Jagessar), another member of the Newsday stable was also in winners’ row at the awards function held at the Kam Wah Restaurant, Maraval Road, Port-of-Spain on Tuesday. He secured two of the minor prizes in the closing quarter of the racing season.
Due to the absence of qualified cricket umpires officiating in the First Division of the Central Zone, Calcutta Sports are looking for support from other clubs to shut down the competition until the matter is resolved.
Calcutta official, Noushard Mohammed, said yesterday he was very upset by the fact that since the beginning of the season official umpires have not been doing matches. “It breaks your heart when you put out so much to play the game and non-umpires spoil your fun. When we turn up to play, both teams have to put out an umpire to officiate and this is not good because apart from not having the ability as an official, bias occurs. “Imagine only last week a player made an appeal after a batsman was caught and the ‘umpire’ told him he was not giving the batsman out because the bowler was rude to him earlier on,” said Mohammed.
It is alleged that the official umpires dumped the Central Zone after a dispute over their allowance arose. Chairman of the Central Zone, Roland Sampath when contacted said he wished not to comment on the matter but teams can rest assured that the matter will be addressed soon. Mohammed also revealed that he had made a proposal that the teams pay the umpires in order to have them on duty. He said this idea was not given the blessings of the zone officials, for the fear of umpires favouring teams that pay their fees.
SCOTIA BANK of Trinidad and Tobago continues to support cricket in the West Indies, win, lose or draw. This according to Managing-Director Richard Young, “Let us like David Rudder, Rally Round the West Indies,” he said.
He was speaking at the launch of the 2003 Kiddy Cricket Season and the distribution of the “Clarence Goes to School Teachers’ Manual,” at the Sir Frank Worrell Cricket Development Centre, Balmain, Couva yesterday. “We take pride in fostering initiatives that play an important role in the future development of our region.” Apart from being the official bank for the WICB, Scotia Bank has been identifying with the promotion of youth cricket and mainly so throughout the Caribbean.
They have 7,500 players involved with over 600 schools and 1,200 teachers as coaches/sportsmasters, Young said. Scotia Bank has also distributed equipment and coaching manuals to schools throughout the Caribbean and “so far the response has been overwhelming,” Young said. “And what is most heartening is the fact that we are getting requests from schools, local cricket clubs and parents wanting to know how to get their children involved and this in itself is testimony of the impact and popularity of the programme,” Young said. Co-ordinating the Teachers’ Cricket Manual distributed to schools was Dr Michael Seepersaud, Chief Cricket Development Officer of the WICB. He was thankful to all those who contributed to the production of the textbook, especially the English and Wales Cricket Boards of Control. Young said that Scotia Bank were proud of the manual “because it not only exemplifies our commitment to education but because it preserves a heritage that has been so essential to the building of culture in the West Indies. “By passing this tradition on to our younger generation, we hope to encourage young children to develop a love for sport,” he added.
Young felt that classroom traning should provide a fresh, new perspective to learning about cricket and to assist children in becoming more disciplined and confident, traits they will be able to draw upon in later life. “Cricket is a game that stretches far beyond the realm of sport as it embracese young and old and unites West Indians with strong bonds. “West Indians have cricket in their soul and as Scotiabankers not only is cricket dear to us , but also we are truly West Indian — as a people and as a bank.” Other speakers included Baldath Mahabir, head of the Coaching Committee of the TTCBC; Roustan Job, third vice president of the TTUTA; Vincent Graham, president of the Primary Schools Cricket League, Bachan Boochoo, Physical Education Officer, and Sharon Mangroo, Director of Curriculum Development.
In an initial contract deal valued at $6 million US dollars, Navini Networks, Inc, West Indian Telecommunications Inc (WINTEL) and Allplus Computer Systems last week announced the deployment of the first non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless broadband network to serve customers in Trinidad and Tobago.
The deployment will be the first ubiquitous broadband service in the area and will feature NLOS multi-megabit performance over the entire country, starting with the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, Port-of-Spain. After evaluating numerous solutions, WINTEL selected Navini’s Ripwave (TM) system for this deployment, offering customers multi-megabit network speeds, a zero-install (TM) plug-and-play modem, and untethered broadband access anywhere within the coverage area. The WINTEL offering will include broadband data and voice services in an always-on system providing uninterrupted broadband access, which will be extremely customer-friendly in its deployment due to its NLOS, zero-install proposition. WINTEL will initially offer the wireless broadband services to business customers under the brand name “Nomad Ripwave.” Within a year, WINTEL plans to further expand its broadband data and voice services into the residential markets throughout all of Trinidad and Tobago.
“We are still in the early stages of growth for broadband data services here in Trinidad and Tobago, and there is great potential for mobile high-speed broadband service for the corporate and entrepreneurial market with the Nomad Ripwave system. At present, there are limited options available and limiting factors for service, especially for those wanting broadband access from various locations. It is our intent to provide solutions for these problems with a cost-effective network capable of service-level make good business sense both to us and our customers,” said Cedric Branche, chairman of WINTEL. “Field trials and initial market thrust with the Nomad Ripwave demonstrated exceptional performance and a degree of excitement in our target niches confirming our early assessments that Navini offers the most complete and effective solution with real performance and capability — ideal for the quality and productivity-conscious corporate and business leaders in Trinidad and Tobago who are keen to effectively compete in the global marketplace. The stuff really works,” stated Peter Fung Kee Fung, head of customer strategic development for WINTEL.
Allplus Computer Systems is both the reselling and deployment partner for WINTEL, assaulting the service provider with their equipment, installation and operational needs. “For several years now, we have been looking for a wireless last mile solution that delivers on its promises, and we have found that solution with the Navini Networks technology. Allplus Computer Systems is finally able to take a complete last mile wireless broadband solution to the entire Caribbean and Latin American regions. In teaming with WINTEL to deploy the Navini Networks solution in Trinidad and Tobago, we are confident it is just the first among many Navini deployments throughout the region,” said Wilson Cruz, Executive Director of Sales and Marketing for Allplus Computer Systems. “Allplus and WINTEL share our vision of delivering cost-effective, convenient and powerful wireless broadband to businesses and consumers,” said Alastair Westgarth, president and CEO, Navini Networks. “This contract, along with several other recent endorsements of Navini’s technology, is further validation of Navini’s commitment to making wireless broadband accessible to everyone, everywhere, including the Caribbean islands.”
Rolph Balgobin, executive director, UWI Institute of Business (UWI/IOB) believes that the only way that Trinidad and Tobago can become more competitive is collaborating with other Caribbean countries.
“TT’s advancement will not be a national advance but a regional advance through Caricom,” he said. However, the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) is going to be the determining force of how strong this region is in terms of competitiveness. Speaking at the UWI-IOB Ideas Forum last week at the Trinidad Hilton, Balgobin said the question that lies in this situation is how does TT make its way in this sort of an environment, since the CSME runs the very real risk of being overtaken by the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
“The challenge and imperative that we face within the region is do we compete together voluntarily now or have it done to us later,” he said, noting that question of how it is going to be done is being pushed to the back. What has to be decided now is “when” and “who.” Balgobin said there is a consensus among this region’s major trading partners that they prefer to deal with Caricom countries as a bloc, noting though that there are clear advantages and disadvantages to a unilateral position. “We do see some of the more successful developing countries in the world taking a unilateral stance engaging with trading partners and doing quite well, but whether that is a model that is sustainable to the Caricom region or not is difficult to day at this point in time,” he told his audience. He said it is going to be fundamentally difficult for TT to face other countries alone, especially when FTAA is implemented.
Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s discussions with some of the other heads of governments is really a voluntary move for closer integration but whether that can be accomplished before FTAA is another issue. Balgobin said TT and other Caricom countries need to urgently address whether they are going to get ready for FTAA and have collaborative mechanisms in place, “or is this region going to play ‘catch-up’ once the FTAA is implemented. “FTAA is going to do tremendous damage to our industries if we are caught on the back foot,” he said. He said all countries of this region have well advanced communications technology and they should be very well aware of the adjustments that are required. He said while these adjustments might not be politically expedient to implement, these countries must be aware of the changes necessary to be ready for FTAA.
However, he said even as TT tries to educate the lesser partners within Caricom, it also has to evaluate which industries it wants to participate in and decide which ones are sustainable. “Its not just a question of raising awareness in the region,” he said, noting that some manufacturers have developed very strong export markets and doing quite well, others are suffering.
Robert Riley, president, bpTT believes Trinidad and Tobago must begin to act as Trinidad and Tobago plc. “By this I mean that to be globally competitive as a country we must have an integration of the education, health, industrial and public sector, supported by an enabling legislative programme and governance structure.”
He was speaking at the UWI — Institute of Business (UWI-IOB) Ideas Forum entitled “Global Competitiveness and Trinidad and Tobago,” at the Trinidad Hilton last week. Riley said such an holistic approach to industrial development fostered international competitiveness among companies. Education, he said is the key to unleashing the creativity of the people and to driving the industrial process. Riley added that the availability of an educated workforce has consistently been found to provide access to the productivity increases needed for global competitiveness as it builds an economy’s ability to absorb new knowledge and technology. In a survey review of innovation done by the Economist in 1999, a study by Richard Nelson and Nathan Rosenberg noted that countries which sustained a large number of competitive and innovative firms were found to be better at churning out well trained young people with all the skills their industry needed.
bpTT’s president said research and development (R&D) activities are essential for building the capability to innovate and ensure that competitiveness are able to enhance their global competitiveness. He noted that the growth of the East Asian countries was preceded by extraordinary increases in spending in R&D reaching over one percent of GDP by the mid 1990s. In Korea spending on R&D increased from 0.62 percent of GDP in 1981 to 2.09 percent in 1994, approaching levels of industrialised countries and surpassing that of the United Kingdom (UK). Latin America on the other hand continues to lag behind; Chile recorded the highest spending for the same period rising from 0.59 percent to 0.76 percent for the same period. However, he said to complement such initiatives, TT needs to become a nation of entrepreneurs. “We have few examples of persons who have emerged as true successful local entrepreneurs: Arthur Lok Jack, Ken Gordon, Aleem Mohammed come to mind immediately.”
Riley said these three factors, education, technological capability and entrepreneurship are not the only ones that create national competitiveness. He said a glance at the Global Competitiveness Index highlight some of the other variables such as national governance structures, transparency and corruption, in addition to some of the macro-economic indicators. He said the lack of skilled personnel, the limited opportunities for local training in some of the key sectors as well as the limited entrepreneurial drive amongst some of the non-traditional players and the challenge of funding new businesses are some of the elements needed to build global competitiveness.
For Trinidad and Tobago to become a developed nation, it must first become a competitive nation.
This is the view of Jennifer Blanke, an economist with the Global Competitiveness Programme (GCP) at the World Economic Forum. Blanke was the feature speaker at the UWI — Institute of Business (UWI – IOB) Ideas Forum titled “Global Competitiveness and Trinidad and Tobago which was held last week at the Trinidad Hilton. Competitiveness is not synonymous with developed nation status, but there is a casual relationship, in that competitiveness underpins development, she said. The GCP is responsible for publishing the Global Competitiveness Report and Index, (GCP and GCI respectively) in which TT placed 37th, behind only the United States (US), Canada and Chile in the Americas. The GCI estimates, the underlying prospects for growth over a five to eight year horizon. The GCR looks at multiple dimensions of a country’s current and potential performance and uses two distinct but complimentary approaches to assessing competitiveness. The first, which is the Microeconomic Competitiveness Index (MICI), assesses institutions, market structures and economic policies supportive of high current levels of productivity. It therefore examines current competitiveness.
Using this yardstick, TT was ranked 44th, behind countries such as Chile (31st); Brazil (33rd); India (37th), China (38th); Costa Rica (39th) and the Dominican Republic (41st). Blanke said TT is not actually tapping into its competitive potential, noting that even though TT has a strong macro-economic environment, there are other factors which are holding back the country from being competitive. “The fact that you have a strong macro-economic environment, which is something hard to get together, is really a warning signal to capitalise on the fact that you have such a good macro-economic environment,” she said.
This country’s macro-economic stability accounted in a large part for its high ranking. She said the challenge to make TT a developed nation by 2020 or sooner can be met by transforming it into an innovation-driven economy, characterised by the presence of sustainable, brain-driven industries. She added that crime and corruption were two factors that were also affecting the country’s competitiveness. Blanke noted that other factors which were holding back competitiveness were a high interest rate spread, the level of tertiary level enrollment and the use of technology. With regards to the MICI, Blanke said local companies are strong in penetrating regional markets and those surveyed said the business environment does not hamper the start up of new businesses. However, Blanke said there needs to be more innovation and increased spending on research and development and staff training.
With just two weeks to go before the Australian team arrives in the Caribbean for a four-Test and seven One-Day series, there is a lot of panic and concern among several of the cricketing grounds in the Caribbean.
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) are in charge of all of the grounds, in terms of allocation of ticket sales and the overall arrangements, but so far the Test playing venues have yet to received information from the WICB about several concerns. “A lot of the WICB members are still in South Africa, because there was an official pre-launch of the staging of the World Cup 2007. Some of the officials were invited for the semi-finals this week,” one official stated. “But there are a lot of grounds that need work and are in need of information. The WICB need to get their act together. “We are quite concerned that at this last moment, there is still so much to be arranged and it may mean that a lot of things will have to be hustled before the First Test in Guyana,” he added.
It is understood that a number of the cricketing grounds are under-prepared because there is still a lot of information which normally comes forward early on that is waiting to be dispatched . “For instance ticket information for the First Test would have been passed to the relevant grounds so that they can begin their sales based on what the WICB have allocated, but a lot of this is still to be completed,” noted the source. Among the officials who travelled to South Africa are Acting Chief Executive Officer of the WICB, Roger Braithwaite and President of the WICB, Wes Hall. The West Indies heralded hosting of the Cricket World Cup 2007 with a Caribbean-style event on March 9 in South Africa. International journalists and cricket officials, tour operators and other influential persons were invited to get a taste of what the Caribbean have to offer the world in four years.
The event, which was hosted at a private venue by the Windies World Cup 2007 delegation in South Africa was made possible through the support of a number of companies as well as Caribbean cultural and tourism bodies. Video extracts of the event will be shown internationally to build awareness of the West Indies as the next World Cup draws close. But while all this is going on Steve Waugh has already confirmed himself for the tour of the Caribbean. “Imagine the Australians have already named their captain, and their team is expected shortly and the WICB have not finalised the coach and manager post as yet because the persons who did the interview are all members of the WICB executive and they cannot meet as yet with the full executive to ratify all their decisions,” the source noted. “At this time, it seems there are some in the WICB that are more concerned with ensuring that we look good for the Next World Cup which is a long way off in 2007, compared to the Australian Test series which is next month,” he added.
Sri Lanka women cricketers continued their dominance over the West Indies with a 38-run victory in the third encounter of the six-match series at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port-of-Spain yesterday.
SCORES: Sri Lanka 214/9 (50 overs) vs West Indies 176/9.
Chasing 215 to win in 50 overs at 4.30 runs per over, the regional cricketers struggled throughout to reach 176/9 in 49 overs. Pamela Alfred batted well and tried to take her team home with an innings of 40 but did not get the required support. Sri Lankan captain Suthershini Sivanatham bowled her team to victory with figures of 3/26. Earlier, Sri Lanka batted first on winning the toss and scored a respectable 214/9 in their allotted 50 overs. Openers Wasanthi Ratnayke (36) and Randhika Galhenege (34) got their team off to a good start and middle order bat Chamani Seneviratne topscored with 40 as they made the Oval field their own. The West Indies were brought back into the match by a spell of three for 27 from off-spinner Juliana Nero and skipper Verena Felicien who returned the figures of one for 16 from 10 tidy overs. The bandwagon now moves over to St Vincent and the Grenadines where they play the fourth match tomorrow.
Summarised Scores:
Sri Lanka 214/9 (50 overs) (Chamani Seneviratne 40, Wasanthi Ratnayke 36, Randhika Galhenege 34, Juliana Nero 3/27, Verena Felicien 1/16) def West Indies 176/9 (49 overs) (Pamela Alfred 40, Juliana Nero 16, Dorris Francis 16, Suthershini Sivanatham 3/26) — by 38 runs.
