Local cycling in dire need of a 'patch'
Sports Scope...Our Opinion
Stabroek News
January 18, 2004
Local cycling has a spike in its wheel and unless administrators work for the betterment of the sport, it will continue to deflate.
There are administrators who criticise the efforts of others instead of putting their hands to the wheel to lift the standard of the sport. And then there are those who cast blame, when they are the ones at fault. Others want top positions, but just sit idly by; only a few clubs continue to organise regular cycle meets.
Worst of all is the behaviour of cyclists who use foul and abusive language in the presence of administrators, children and even sponsors of cycle programmes.
For local cycling to ride high again, administrators need to forget their differences and work as one cohesive unit. Once appointed to office, an administrator should be made to work, failing which; he/she should be replaced.
Organisers of cycle programmes should refuse to register those cyclists who are guilty of using obscene language during events. Consideration should be given to disqualifying those who use such language or ride dangerously during an event.
It is in fact against the law to use indecent language in public. But what can be worse than using such language in the presence of people who contribute their hard-earned cash or that of their company to a sporting event, so that the participants can earn prizes? There has never been a race - as far as Sportscope is aware - where there was no use, by participants, of indecent language.
Another point of concern that needs addressing is that of sponsorship.
Over the past two years, two particular clubs have organised between them, nine cycle programmes, because they claim, sponsorship is hard to come by. Yet when other clubs are sponsored, officials of these two clubs cry foul at the size of trophies presented or the prize money on offer.
With regard to the absence of the much-needed velodrome or bank track, Sportscope will leave the many promises at rest. Exhuming them may well cause the late senior counsel Donald Robinson to turn in his grave. Suffice it to say that the area identified for the velodrome will soon become a zoo where our great-grandchildren will take their grandchildren for strolls.