Let's salute some real Bermudian heroes

By Fred Barritt
As much as I enjoyed watching my New York Giants stomp all over the New England videotapers in the Superbowl, I'm not going to join the Government in saluting Antonio Pierce as a "Bermudian hero'.
It's not like we don’t have ACTUAL Bermudians who are ACTUAL World Champions. Malcolm Smith has won the Sunfish Sailing World Championship three times — 1994, 1998 and 2003. But apparently this feat is not worthy of celebration by the Bermuda Government.
They’d much rather throw money at cricket and football in the vain hope that we might actually get eleven people all drug-free at the same time and of sufficient talent that they don’t get completely embarassed in front of a global television audience!
We all watched the 20/20 fiasco against Guyana. Well I watched some of it — I flipped over to the Grammy Awards to see Rihanna sing and by the time she’d finished six wickets had fallen! Then the under-19 team lost to Nepal by 188 runs! Nepal! That’s in the Himalayas! There’s not enough flat land in that entire country for a cricket oval! How do they practice? By bowling “up-mountain”?

And now we learn that our women’s team was only able to score three runs in their entire innings! You have GOT to be kidding me! Talk about being “out of your league”! There isn’t even a league here for them to be “out” of! Why on earth are we sending them to South Africa? Did someone in the BCB just want another free vacation? Were Antigua and Malaysia not sexy enough for them?
Then our Football team can’t even beat the Caymans – at home! Of course we really shouldn’t be surprised when a hungry opponent succeeds against our complacency. After all, they’re doing the same thing in the business world by taking more and more of our International Businesses as our Government continues make life more difficult for them here.
Rather than throwing cash at people and hope that they become motivated, Government should be supporting the athletes who are already showing the dedication required for success. There are dozens of Bermudians spending their own money as they train for triathlon, sailing, swimming, diving and equestrian events just to name a few.
These are the REAL heroes. The people who actually WANT to represent Bermuda in International competition. And they have a REAL chance of winning.
Let’s face it — Kim Swan has a better chance to be the next Premier than Bermuda has to ever compete internationally in cricket or football. And they get $26 million dollars between them while an actual World Champion in sailing doesn’t even get a cocktail party, never mind a parade.

Comments

[Matt]

Finally - There is some commonsense in Bermuda!

[Nigel]

Football and cricket in Bermuda face a huge credibility problem at the moment, not really because of performance, but more for the huge amount of funding that has been committed by the government that has focused attention on them.

While the decision to award the initial multi-millions to cricket may have been coloured by the national team’s performance in reaching the World Cup final, the subsequent award to football was probably prompted by a few more rational reasons.

Unfortunately, while recent national team performance has attracted a lot of negative comment, the shortfall in results probably has more to do with unrealistic expectations of the public than abject failure of the players and administration. As with public education in this country, which everyone is agreed is in need of major reforms, no amount of throwing money at it today will produce instant improvement. It is a long term process and the same applies in sport.

We probably need to forget senior team national aspirations for at least the next five years and concentrate on developing the youth, the players who will be there in five years’ time.

I do not have any experience with youth or senior cricket in Bermuda, but as far as football is concerned, there is huge interest and participation at many levels. The BFA Youth Committee, with the support of numerous clubs, runs a massive program of games each week for children from 5 to 18. Games get played, kids have fun and the sport grows what it needs for the future. In my opinion, Government is right to support football at this level – the sport provides a healthy outlet for the children, but more needs to be done. It takes the support of clubs, parents and players to ensure that children learn properly – understand and accept the self discipline that comes from team sports, learn respect for officials and authority figures, accept that the end result is not everything and that life comes with rules that should be obeyed in spirit as well as in fact.

Coaches and parents have a wonderful opportunity to set an example of respect at games, for officials, for players of both teams, for the game itself.

So Government money spent here may be helping to develop useful, healthy and motivated citizens of the future. Money well spent if everyone is working for the same goal.

On the other hand, if part of the motivation is to raise Bermuda’s profile on the world stage, then Government may have missed the mark. With its 60,000+ population that would fit easily within most large sports arenas in the US, Bermuda is no more than a small to mid-sized town in the UK or US. The law of averages (and genetics) means that you are extremely unlikely to have eleven world class footballers around at the same time. Shaun Goater, Kyle Lightbourne, Clive Best, et al are all world class athletes, but they are exceptional. With 50+ million people to choose from, the UK has much better odds. We should not expect our teams to figure on the world stage. However, matched against like nations, our expectations and our results should be greater – that is why the Island Games concept is so great.

For international glory, Bermuda would be much wiser to support individual athletes. We have, as a country, a much better chance of producing, on the day, a world class triathlete, high-jumper, sailor, cyclist, boxer, swimmer, diver, motocross rider, etc.. They are the ones who will fly the flag and win the medals. They are the reason why we need to support the ‘minority’ sports and improve facilities to make them more appealing to all.

These sports are desperate for investment. There is no 50m swimming pool on the island, although one has been planned for years at the National Centre. The cycle track at the North Field is inaccessible because the inner field it surrounds is always booked for main stream sports. There is pressure for the motor cyclists to vacate the Southside speedway because of noise concerns.

Keep up the funding for the big boys in sport, because with time the results will improve, but do not neglect the other sports where we can get a bigger bang for the buck.

[Fitter than You]

Amen, Fred. The fact is that there are two very distinct groups of sports in Bermuda - Political and Apolitcal. Political sports include football and cricket, while Apolitical has everything else. The political sports exist completely separate from any commonly held beliefs on how sport is to be managed, while the others operate in international athletic reality. What do I mean by this? In apolitical sports you have to drive yourself to become truly world class on your own time and dime before any sort of government support (if any) comes your way. You and your sport's governing body receives essentially no support in the meantime. Meanwhile, in the political sports you can apparently be completely uncommitted, not gifted, well below average for an international part time amateur (and sometimes a woman still learning to bowl) and you get money thrown at you, as at the end of the day political sports are votes and community institutions, boys clubs not sports. Their disproportionate support is an insult to the amateur apolitical athletes who acheive international recognition and rack themselves day-in, day-out. I would be interested to see the training diaries and performance evaluation tests of some of these supposed 'stars', as it would appear the biggest physical hardship some of these guys face is fighting gravity to get their unfit bodies out of bed in the morning. Considering there are supposedly thousands of active political athletes on the island, why aren't I dodging packs of them running on the roads, or waiting behind them in the gyms? The vast majority are uncommitted, over-rewarded. Of course there are some exceptions, and these individuals should be encouraged to continue to sacrifice, dig deep, and strive (just like the rest of us already do) for as long as it takes - Goat and Khano didn't get to where they are just because of their passports! We can make a star, not a team of stars.

As for Pierce, he's not in any way a product of this country's small-village sport system. As great as he may be - his accomplishments simply cannot be grouped with those of Goat or Khano. Don't care who is Diddy is! I am especially surprised to hear this come from El (though maybe I shouldn't be as he's a cricketing fraternity member??), just look at his son Xavier, one of Bermuda's most truly gifted athletes, an awesome guy on and off the track and a poster child for self drive and hardwork. I don't know the details, but I would hazard a guess that the support he received pales in comparison to that of a single member of our current village cricket team. Tragic.

Don't even get me started on the Woman's cricket team! I'm offended!

[Jib Colesworthy]

Having just arrived back on the island but having followed the exploits or misfortunes of Bermuda's "big" sports futbol and cricket, my reaction is to fire the entire teams, their coaches and all administrative personnel.

Further, I would suspend all spending until I had a sound strategic plan on how to produce winning programs versus the pathetic results that have been generated by both teams.

For starters, I would implement a tryout program to get the very best players, followed by a rigorous training program to see who really wants to play and commit themselves to excellence versus a bunch of "fat cats" that are along for the free ride.

Those that make the cut would sign a contract that outlines the expectations of them as players, the rules to be followed for participation and the consquences if they screw up both on and off the field.

I would rather not field a team that lacks talent, commitment and fire in the gut than witness the performances that being presented to us and to the WORLD.

To say that Bermuda's athletes have put forth their best efforts is a joke.

Why waste the money for non performance. In my world, you underperform, you are FIRED!

[Mo]

Unfortunately that common sense does not belong to the politicians and/or sports administrators. I doubt it ever will.

[george]

hmmm..... i noticed something of ANY bermuda government, when a person who has "some" BERMUDIAN connection, the government of the day won't recognize he or she, UNTIL THE INDIVIDUAL HAS ACCOMPLISHED AN ACCOLADE OR A CHAMPIONSHIP IS ON THE LINE... THIS IS FREE PUBLICITY TO SHOWCASE BERMUDA,,,, hmmm ... a strange pattern

[george]

ARTHUR CHARLES CALVIN SIMONS, AUSTIN SIMONS,BRIAN SIMONS AND ETC.. somerset cricket club of 1930's to 1970's

The Aberdeenshire Cricket Clubs journal A Historical Survey of 100 years of cricket ending in 1957, carried this lament by its Editor on Champs final return to Bermuda:

... With his departure there disappeared a real character from the Scottish Cricket stage. Not only was he a great cricketer but a gentleman and a philosopher. He loved children and they in turn reciprocated his affection, and every time he strode down the Pavilion steps on his way to the crease, with that shy but permanent grin of sheer impishness on his face, he was greeted by a spontaneous burst of youthful acclamation indicative of his standing with the young cricket community and shared also by its elders.

Here is an excerpt pertaining to Champ's ICC contribution that directly laid the foundation for Bermuda's ICC participation and subsequent inclusion in the World Cup tournament this year -- 2007:

... Champ with great foresight as a means to that end, proposed in 1967 a tournament among the minor ICC countries. The idea came to fruition in 1979, when the ICC Associate Membership Tournament was started in England. Bermuda participated with much distinction in the inaugural games, losing in the finals to Zimbabwe. Again in the next tournament in 1982, Bermuda reached the finals and was narrowly defeated for the trophy by Zimbabwe. It was that series that put Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka on the path that gained them Test playing status. The utter significance of his contribution in that regard earned him worldwide recognition when in 1986, The Man of the Series Trophy in the ICC Tournament was named after Hunt.

ALL ARE MY RELATIVES...