Another glittering Christmas Football Festival …
Now a social event for many
By Isaiah Chappelle
Guyana Chronicle
January 8, 2004
THE Kashif & Shanghai Organisation staged yet another successful Christmas Football Festival that attracted the usual huge crowds at the four venues, but at least one area continued to taint the event - the announcers.
One significant area of the championship, however, was the noticeable zeal with which the teams played their games, even if their best did not produce the kind of result that many expected.
Over the years, the organisers of the country’s biggest annual sporting event, improved with each staging, bringing it to international standards, but somehow they have not been able to employ the kind of media expertise to deal with public announcements.
Some announcers concentrated on sounding American, rather than producing correct pronunciation, diction and logical presentation of facts.
One announcer could not call the word ‘realty’ which was changed to “reality” in delivery. To crown it during the presentation of prizes, the said announcer declared a “golden silver ball” was being presented.
The list of sponsors was presented thus: “The Government of Guyana; Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, … Well, one wonders what the first covers.
Another classic was: “Coming up after the first half is the second half.” Well, are there more than two halves?
Schooling in sport language also seemed to be almost negligible. The plural is always used in sport for teams but the announcers did not follow that rule. Also, there is no feature match from the quarterfinals of a competition, because all matches are important from the last-eight stage.
Those, among many others, detracted from the international standard that the championship has attained over the years -- more so, because the mistakes were blared on the public address system.
Also, there were more than two announcers, thus there was continuous chatter because each wanted to have his/her voice heard. This became annoying and the impact for important announcements was lost.
The organisers needed to have an experienced person to coordinate the media (whose personnel invariably turned up only for the final), especially in this day, when many flout the media tag without real knowledge of how the media operate.
A television crew set up its control in the press box. Such control unit is usually out of sight and only the commentators watch the match, with the video mixed based on their comments. However, the goodly commentary team for this TV house watched the screen and did their commentary. Again, it was a lack of basic training and supervision.
Fortunately, the intensity of the matches absorbed spectators’ attention as teams evidently played with their hearts and sometimes blood.
It should never be said that a team lost because they did not play their best, but rather a superior or better organised team might have gotten the bacon.
In other instances, however, some teams that played the better ball, lost, probably due to hard luck or perhaps the resilience of the other team.
Such was the case in the match with Western Tigers and Camptown, which the Tigers lost at the penalty spot. They went in as the underdogs then held the powerful Campbellville line-up to a first-half draw after controlling the run of play. They eventually put in the first goal, then a silly backward pass surprised the defence and the equaliser came for Camptown.
The Kanaku Invaders of Rupununi suffered a similar fate, going down to Silver Shattas 2-1, after dominating the game with outstanding individual skill. But they needed to increase their running pace to make more inroads.
However, the twists and turns set the stage for an interesting final, that enthralled the crowd so much, that $345 000 was added to the prize as the game progressed. Thus when Camptown needled Topp XX, they carted off the biggest prize money in the history of the championship, just $60 000 short of a whopping $1 million. Nigel Codrington got a $5 000 from the impromptu sum for scoring the goal.
Mackenzie Sports Club, Camptown, Blairmont Community Centre and the newest addition Wales Community Centre had capacity crowds representing a wide cross-section of society. For many, the play-days in their community became a social event, evident from the way people were elegantly decked out.
Many Berbicians turned up for a night match but the double header started at 13:00 hrs, thus while the final whistle was close to being blown, spectators were still arriving.
Once again the Kashif & Shanghai Organisation staged the country’s most glittering sport event, which has now become a social event for many, providing entertainment for tens of thousands and putting much needed money into the pockets of football clubs.