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PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning yesterday
announced an allocation of $100 million for
sports in the fiscal year 2005-2006.
The Prime Minister who is also Finance Minister
disclosed the news in his more than three-hour
Budget presentation to Parliament in the Red House in Port-of-Spain.
PM Manning revealed that the allocation will
target the upgrade of some 400 recreation grounds
throughout Trinidad and Tobago, including the Eddie Hart Savannah in Tacarigua.
Government has also planned upgrading works for
the Roland Pompey Recreation in Princes Town,
Irvin Park in San Fernando, Soogrin Trace
Recreation Ground in Laventille, the Charlieville
Recreation Ground, Patna Recreation Ground in
Diego Martin and the Lange Park Recreation Ground in Chaguanas.
PM Manning said his $100 million allocation will address this aspect of sports.
It was part of an interesting Budget
presentation, the theme of which was "Addressing
the Basic Needs of Trinidad and Tobago."
And Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Roger
Boynes said Government has already spent $120
million which is currently bearing fruits. He
noted an increase in the amount allotted for
sports — from $23 million last year to $120
million this year — shows the interest to enhance
the development of sports in the country.
Boynes explained that from this amount,
Government will also upgrade the Hasely Crawford
Stadium at Mucurapo which includes purchasing a
cover for the field, as well as the covering of
the adjoining Jean Pierre Complex.
Boynes predicted exciting times ahead for sports
in Trinidad and Tobago as Government will tackle
the development of communities throughout this country.
Chairman of the new National Sports Commission
Gerard Ferreira said he was delighted with the
amount given saying Government’s focus on
community building and development was long overdue.
He said the upgrade of the facilities will
coincide with a number of proposed programmes to
assist the overall development. According to
Ferreira, it included dealing with the training of coaches and administrators.
Ferreira said yesterday that a number of
programmes have already been put in place, and
they are expected to deal with the overall development of the individual.
However, former Minsiter of Sports in the United
National Congress administration Manohar Ramsaran
said yesterday Government’s allotment in the
2005/2006 Budget towards sports was not what he expected.
Ramsaran feels that more should have been done
for the preparation of facilities for the Cricket
World Cup in 2007 saying that he went to Guyana
on a cricket tour recently and was appalled to
see that the cricket grounds for the greatest
cricketing tournament in the world were near
readiness while Trinidad and Tobago was far
behind. He said that he didn’t feel money was the
problem but more so the will of the people in the
ministry to do what is necessary.
Ramsaran pointed out he has heard similar
presentations for the past two or three years and
slammed the sports ministry for poor performance
in delivering on its promises.
He in fact described the ministry’s delivery on
its promises as "deplorable" saying that a number
of facilities that were promised to be built and upgraded were never started.
Ramsaran said he did no know what criteria were
used for selecting the facilities to be upgraded, but said it was questionable.
He noted that the clubs that really contributed
to the development of cricket in the National
Cricket League were excluded, except for a
couple. Ramsaran feels that facilities which are
used for national league competitions, including
cricket and football, should have been considered.
He said Walker Park for instance had been
targeted for upgrade last year and to date nothing has been done.
He claimed that the $100 million had been too
much for the present ministry to handle, yet the
figure would have been too little for sport, under a different minister
