GTTA boss lays down the law

… shares vision of what must be done for proper athlete funding

By Timothy Jaikarran

Table tennis is one of the few sporting disciplines that is played in almost every country around the world based on its popularity. While in Guyana the pandemic has taken its toll, Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) President Godfrey Munroe has shared his vision on what can be done to help fund athletes’ participation in their desired sport.

“The funding element usually comes to the fore when teams have to travel, but it is a much deeper-rooted problem that negatively impacts sports development given the  unstructured provision of financing sources which affects and impacts the ability of NSOs [National Sporting Organisations] to roll out and implement critical programmes along the lines of national team training and structure, key coaching programmes in the realm of talent identification development, provision of key equipment facilities – which are key pillars for sports development. The opportunity cost of managing limited and unstructured budgets always means that key programmes will have to be foregone, which affects athletes’ dreams,” the GTTA boss lamented.

Munroe went on to list ideas he believes would lend to creating solutions to remedy this plight that many local athletes have faced:
* Implementation of policies that incentivise sponsors (tax waivers, a tax-based sporting fund, etc).
* Implementation of policies that incentivise athletes’ sacrifices and make the sporting journey a rewarding experience from nursery school to national level.
* Provision of developmental grants and grants to NSOs to assist in management of sports, hosting of key domestic competitions and attendance at key international games, support for elite athletes to maintain training regimen and attend high-yield competitions and training, provision of coaching support.
* Greater level of investment in each sporting discipline to help bring them to sustainability.
* Get companies to use athletes and sports officials for marketing campaigns at a cost – in alignment with key company values. This is an area that is critical to assisting with funding for sports.
* Promote the spirit of volunteerism, as it is the biggest contributor to sporting development across the world.
* Human resource development: train more persons in sports management, coordination and training, ensure that persons with right skills sets are elected to national federations.
* Create innovative fund-raising activities and concepts.
* Reframe NSOs to reflect a more modern dynamic structure with role definitions, marketing departments, developmental mandates (constitutions are archaic).
The GTTA boss reiterated that policy implementation, strategic approaches, united effort within sport disciplines, and more collaboration and synchronisation between marketers and sports officials (creation of forums, endorsement by key stakeholders) are key to ensuring adequate funding of athletes.
Munroe was adamant that this would benefit the upcoming crop of players such as the Jonathan Van Langes and the Kaysan Ninvalles. He noted that a lot more inputs have to be made with this very talented crop of players such as training camps, attendance at key competitions, equipment support, structured training, incentives, and support to motivate. Munroe relayed that it was great to see the players enthusiastic about the game and still training and practising, as, for the most part, all have shown a level of resilience, commitment, dedication and sacrifice which is very noteworthy and commendable. However, the Association needs to get them focused again with the required inputs to help them realise their true potential.