“Nothing in the absence of tried and tested programme,” Ramson says about Sport Policy

…Policy is still important, he adds

By Jemima Holmes

Over the past four years since the release of its first draft, Guyana’s Sport Policy has been a point of constant discussion in the local sporting fraternity.

The policy, promised by the previous APNU/AFC Coalition administration met the draft stages under their tenure. That was in 2018.
The following year, subject Minister Dr George Norton said they were close to completing the Policy, but 2020 came, administrations changed, and still Guyana’s athletes had no Policy to ensure they were taken care of.
The trend continues, especially with the recent return of Guyana’s 7-medal CARIFTA team. Many are shouting that a Sport Policy would have ensured those athletes some reward upon their return.
While this may be true, current Sport Minister Charles Ramson Jr. is done with the notion of the Sport Policy being the only answer to proper sport administration in the Land of Many Waters.
In fact, Ramson Jr. proposed a strong argument as to why the Policy needs ‘action’ to be successful.
These utterances were made moments after his Ministry sought to honour Guyana’s lone Olympic medalist, Michael Parrs, on Wednesday.
“That’s one of the reasons why I disagree that the Sports Policy is constantly being framed as the ‘be all and end all’,” the Sport Minister declared, after disclosing that a social media post had drawn his attention to the issue.
In true Attorney-at-Law fashion, Ramson Jr. went on to make his case, stating, “Here’s why I disagree, and I can show you why that doesn’t make sense. We have never had a Sports Policy in Guyana, but we were able to produce decades of world class players for cricket. Nobody can argue with that, that is a fact. Successive generations have been able to come through a structure that’s based on a programme that exists, even though informal, that wasn’t run by the Government. The structure existed that allowed talent to be channelled through this line.
“That didn’t work for any other sport, it doesn’t work for any other sport; and what was the reason? The channel doesn’t exist, it just so happens that for cricket the channel exists,” he argued.
“Now, you can have individuals who are showing above-average tiers or performances, but that doesn’t create a pool of talent from which you’ll be able to say you’re capitalising on the talent that you have in the country.”
Ramson finalised his point on why the policy is not the catalyst for Guyana’s success in sport by sharing, “The Policy itself is a document, the document means nothing in the absence of tried and tested implementation of the programme. You have to be satisfied, first of all, that the programme is a workable programme.”
By no measure is the Sport Minister against the idea of a Sport Policy, he made this abundantly clear. In fact, he informed that the Policy is being redrafted to include additional aspects of sport and recent instructions, like the National Sport Academy.
“As far as the Policy is concerned, the policy is important. I don’t want to diminish the role of the policy, but I don’t want to heighten the role of the policy to make it seem as though this is the ‘be all and end all’,” Ramson admitted.
He continued, “If it was the case that all you needed was a Sports Policy, then every country in the world would have a Sports Policy. We would’ve produced a Sports Policy 20, 30, 40 years ago, and that would’ve been what we needed to produce world class talent.”
Turning his attention to an update on the completion of the Sport Policy, the Sport Minister disclosed that it can be expected next year. However, it may take a lot of rehashing.
“In relation to the draft, I wasn’t very satisfied. In fact, I wasn’t satisfied at all with what existed, and whatever we’re doing has to incorporate the National Sports Academy in relation to our Sport Policy, because the National Sports Academy is the vehicle that is going to help us take our talent progressively forward,” he said.
He continued to highlight problem areas with the current draft, relating, “The other part that I had said before is that when you look at the Sport Policy, it reads like a very complex textbook.
“Now, how can that be satisfactory? How could that be satisfactory and practical for the Sports Associations, for them to implement the Sports Policy? Knowing what the Government position is, which includes what are our objectives and what we should be working towards, as well as methodology?
“So, if you have a complex document, it becomes impractical for implementation,” the Sport Minister posited.
In order to ensure the Sport Policy is not only effective, but works in tandem with other developmental projects, such as the Sport Academy, Ramson commented on the need for assessments to ensure everything is functioning as it should.
“That’s why our review of the National Sport Academy for the various core sports, it happens next month. We’re doing an assessment of how it’s going so far. Of course, different sports are going to have different levels of success,” Ramson Jr. said.
Based on the current draft, the Sport Policy is one that would ensure the betterment of lives for Guyanese athletes while focusing on ‘national, regional and internationally-applicable laws, collaboration among national agencies on sport programmes and projects, sport governance, administration, management, organisation, education and educational institutions, medicine, financing (funding, sponsorship, incentives), tourism, manufacturing, intellectual property rights, elite athlete development, the media, overseas offices, diaspora support, and anti-doping.”