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Guyana's number-one indoor sports venue, the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall has no water. This situation has been this way for some time. The situation has severely hampered sports activities at the venue because there is no water for the washroom and other facilities. In fact, only recently was the table tennis training sessions under Chinese coach Zhou Ping allowed to re-commence at the venue after the players and coaches had to seek an alternative venue.
For the better part of December, table tennis players were forced to use the Guyana Table Tennis Federation's (GTTA) Benab facility for the daily training programme. The concrete floor at that facility makes training hard on the knees and the coach was forced to use multi-ball training because there were only few tables at the venue. Not surprisingly, many of the top players stayed away from training (or maybe the festive season was the reason).
One, however is forced to ask, is this the best that Guyana can do? Lest one not forget, the Chinese table tennis and Wushu coaches and their interpreter are here as guests of this country for one year. What a show we are putting on. Why is it that when foreign coaches are here to help us develop our technique that they have to make do with substandard facilities and equipment? Does no one care? The table tennis nets that are in use are, apart from being extremely cheap and flimsy, also woefully inadequate. But I suppose that the players will have to content themselves that this is the best that the government can do. Or maybe they can do better. Minister responsible for sports Gail Teixeira, how about putting some of the money that go to the Kashif and Shanghai organisation to sports that really do deserve it? Or maybe, Minister Teixeira, you can put the money to projects that benefit communities instead of promoters. And what about the water situation? How soon will it be under control? Why is it that the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABBF) can make arrangements to have water for the GABBF/Carib Malta tournament that takes place four nights a week and the National Sports Commission (NSC) cannot do likewise to ensure that the activities at the Sports Hall are not affected. Perhaps the only reason is that as national cycling coach Hassan Mohammed once said "we are sporting with sport in Guyana."