By T. C. Phipps-Benjamin
As long as we have practiced politics in our Federation, so too have national sports thrived. In fact, given the wealth of "raw talent" prevalent among many athletes in our twin-isle, our athletes will likely continue to excel and compete more formidably among the region's top athletes and in the world for that matter. We have our setbacks, but we continue to make headway in sports. Furthermore, many lives have been transformed because of sports involvement. Having witnessed the powerful impact of many of our accomplished sports enthusiasts who exclusively promote the "sport" they love and the inherent ideals that drive them to help others, one can safely conclude that sports, particularly team-focused sports, can serve as one of our nation's model political game changers.
Sports, a positive medium through which athletes compete, allow individuals to display their skills while harnessing a level of discipline that transcends other aspects of their lives. Referees, charged to monitor the field of play, caution athletes to abide by the rules of the sport and remind us of the consequences for non-compliance. Seething adversaries in many sports may sometimes engage in rough play, but when the competition ends, the athletes' heated verbal or physical exchanges tend to be dismissed either by the indulgence of cool refreshing beverages to celebrate the victory, or harmless raging voices debating a controversial loss. That's typically how we practice our sports. Unless there is some extreme animosity between athletes, players generally get along, maintaining a sense of pride; not only for their team but for the sport they play.
At the ripened age of 18, basketball, my initial sports passion, was gently kicked to the curb when local coaches coaxed me to transfer my skills to netball; a sport renowned for the fairer sex. The decision quickly earned me a spot on the Under-23 National Team, the St. Kitts-Nevis National Team and ultimately, a trial spot on the West Indies Squad. In retrospect, my accomplishments in sports and in my private life have had much to do with the tutelage of esteemed sports women such as Marcella Liburd, Gillian Musgrave, Jennifer Byron, and Donna Morton, who were often ably assisted by the grueling physical demands of Mr. Earl Clark, as well as my Cayon Paris Pacers netball family, my rivals, and many, many others.
I recall the motto “NO EXCUSES” as a senior player on the St. Kitts-Nevis National Team. Marcella's tolerance for excuses was minimal, and many times inexistent. For her and her coaching staff, there were to be "no excuses" for errors we made or inappropriate behaviour we displayed as budding women. If we missed a pass, we had to catch the next one. If we got to practice late, it meant being on time for the next one, respecting and complying with the rules of the association, doing everything possible to win.
We didn't win the regional tournament that year, but the invaluable life lessons and opportunities we acquired stayed with us, shaping who we have become as adults. Moreover, the value of the relationships we developed and fostered among our teammates and rivals has been truly humbling.
One might argue that athletes themselves engage in exchanges deemed dangerously confrontational or just as damning to relationship fostering as sometimes occurs in politics. However, athletes are expected to be at their best when performing on the field and they lose their ability to display their gift or honed craft when they allow heated exchanges to dictate their actions during and after any competition. The list of individuals who forgot that there is no "I" in TEAM is long, but the players, whether disciplined or fined for their unsportsmanlike display on the field, can attest to the deep regret they have felt for being shut out of playing the sport they love.
Not such a far cry from the standards to which we should hold our politicians. In the court of public opinion, politicians, community leaders in their own right, set the tone for how we get along with each other, and as a consequence of their failure to uphold a more respectable and level playing field, the electorate has fast become unsupportive and downright fed up. In politics, you serve those who support your party! But don't you also fight for the opportunity to serve those who don't support you? In other words, shouldn’t politicians serve ALL the people? Shouldn’t we then hold them accountable when they blatantly violate the principles of humanity much like athletes who oppose the rules of a sport?
You see, many of us agree that we should vote on election day and put an end to the political schisms that seem to cripple our relationships from the ballot box to the grave, but the intrigue that many of our Kittitian and Nevisian people seem to have for politics often makes it difficult not to go at each other. We make shallow excuses and justify our words and deeds by those who have done ill to us or our loved ones in the past; “Tom do it to Dick so nutt’n wrong if we do it too”. This pervasive political cycle, a recipe for social decay, continues to the liking of many of our politicians.
In the most trying times in our lives, people value relationships and camaraderie, much like that cultivated and harnessed through sports. As our creative thinkers have positioned sports development to boost tourism, maybe our politically savvy minds should mirror some of the fundamental principles of team sports, not only to unite their supporters, but to fuel accord and community togetherness throughout our entire Federation. After so many years of political warmongering, isn't it clear we ought to do something different in the way we practice our politics? A drastic modification of the current political flavour in St. Kitts and Nevis is the one real change that will allow our people to prosper, irrespective of our political persuasion.
Let positive sports rivalry serve as our model for promoting harmony among our people and without reservation, place destructive rivalry on the shelf.
