In Sport Preparation Is Everything
St Vincent and the Grenadines recently hosted yet more international sporting events in relatively quick succession.
We hosted the Women’s Cricket T20 and T50 overs competitions back to back in January and then hosted the CONCACAAF U17 World Cup Qualifiers in football.
Unfortunately, the performances of the Windwards Islands team in the cricket and our male football team in the football left much to be desired and something of a headache for those charged with the responsibility for developing a pathway for athletes in the respective disciplines.
Mediocrity is not an option!
In both the cricket and football competitions the attendance of patrons was abhorrent, to say the least. The participating teams must have wondered whether there was any interest in the two competitions in Vincentian society. Perusal of the patrons revealed the attendance of the most diehard of fans, who, found little to cheer from the performances of the home teams.
Planning
The responsible host national sport associations were informed well in advance of the cricket and football competitions. There is little doubt that there was adequate time for the planning to be good hosts for the participating teams so that they would feel at home and eager to return either as athletes or as visitors in the future.
Admittedly, the playing facilities were prepared. The fact that the football was due to be played shortly after the completion of the cricket mean that the organisers of the cricket switched their plans. Because the T20 had to be played at one venue, it was brought forward so that the best field, the Arnos Vale #1, was available for that segment of the competition. The T50 was taken to different cricket grounds around St Vincent.
The switch for cricket allowed the Arnos Vale playing field to receive the required attention to assure participating teams of access to an international standard competition arena befitting World Cup Qualifiers.
Commendations are in order to the SVG Cricket Association, the SVG Football Federation and the National Sports Council for the excellent collaboration that allowed the participating teams to compete under excellent conditions in so far as the facilities were concerned. Reports also indicate that the accommodation, transportation and meals were appropriately addressed in the planning and delivery processes.
The competitions
Attendance
There is evidence that the cricket and football competitions were duly advertised and in a timely manner. That said, the absence of patrons at both competitions leaves much to be desired and a headache for the respective host and those in the process of planning to take this country along the sport tourism road.
While many sport aficionados around the world flock to witness the T20 competitions, men and women, here it appeared as though less than one percent of the population and of the nation’s sport-loving public, displayed any interest in the proceedings of the women’s competition here. To say that the attendance was embarrassing would be an understatement.
To the participating teams in the cricket competition, it must have been somewhat disheartening, especially since Cricket West Indies and our local association have placed so much emphasis on the provision of the requisite resources, access to training and local, regional and international competitions.
Women’s cricket continues to grow, exponentially, across the cricketing nations of the world, having had more than its fair share of turbulence in pursuit of the rights of women. The disappointment of low crowd attendance needs some explanation, analysis and repair.
Football is easily the most popular sport in St Vincent and the Grenadines, and by a very large margin. But the most casual observer would dispute the foregoing after looking at the thousands of empty seats at the six matches played at the Arnos Vale Sports Complex.
In the case of cricket there was no entry fee. In football, there were entrance fees. However, football provides tickets to each of the major football clubs in the country as well as to the several leagues. Some tickets were provided to the schools whose students were represented on the national team. None of the award of the tickets seemed to have had the desired impact. Most of the tickets given away went unused. It is doubtful whether the total number of patrons at any game exceeded 300.
Here again, the matter requires some serious analysis, especially given the perceived popularity of the sport.
Performances
In the women’s cricket competition, it appeared that the Windward Islands were simply not at the level of the Leeward Islands, Jamaica and Barbados. That is not to say that there was an absence of talent. Instead, it appeared that the team was simply not as well prepared for the level of the gamesmanship they encountered during the competition.
The Leeward Islands women took the challenge to their opponents in the T20 competition, showing the importance of good team preparation and a blending of talented players fully committed to doing well. From their very first match the team showed a level of determination that stayed through the tournament.
In the football competition, St Vincent and the Grenadines found immense difficulty in raising their level of performance as a team, a cohesive unit. It was not until the final game, against St Kitts and Nevis, that the Vincentian players mustered their resolve to climb back from a two-nil deficit to earn a credible draw by the final whistle.
The USA and Dominican Republic were here on a mission, to be the qualifier out of the Group. In the end, the Dominican Republic may well have considered themselves hard done by what many considered a clear penalty that was not called. In their encounter with the USA, the Spanish-speaking Caribbean team had the better of the exchanges for the majority of the game, a fact that often left the US players frustrated.
Preparation
It has often been said that in sport, as indeed in life, preparation is everything and that nothing can be done well without the full engagement of the individual’s capacities.
One is uncertain as to whether there was discord within the Windwards cricket team but the energy seemed distinctly absent.
It is true that for the single-country teams the preparation exercise can be longer, more focused and more frequent, as opposed to the multi-island teams of the Leeward and Windwards. However, the Leeward women were much better prepared and together than their Windward islands counterparts and they showed this is all of their encounters during the tournament.
In the case of the football, the preparation exercise appeared to have been very limited, at best. This is somewhat difficult to explain.
The Inter Schools competitions were held in the first term of the academic year, September – December 2025. With knowledge of the Qualifiers pending in the first quarter of 2026, at the beginning of the second term, one would have expected that the U17 training squad would have spent much of December encamped, in preparation for the big event, especially since the seeding of the teams guaranteed a very tough route to the next round.
The Vincentian team that took to the field on each occasion looked physically and mentally prepared, in each encounter.
As it turned out, the Vincentian team appeared over-awed by the players of the USA. The latter were faster to the ball, found each other with relative ease during the encounter and were tougher going into challenges.
By the half time, the Vincentian athletes were mentally defeated, if not humiliated.
The Vincentian team could easily have had more goals scored against them had the USA not failed to capitalise on several scoring opportunities.
In the game against the Dominican Republic, it was much of the same as against the USA. The Vincentian team could count itself very lucky as the half time score was 8 – 0 in favour of the Spanish-Caribbean team and at the final whistle it was only 10 – 0.
Concerns amongst the faithful football fans ran rampant during the competition. Some were bothered by the players’ inability to settle down in all of their games, including against St Kitts and Nevis with whom they managed a draw at two goals each. They always experienced difficulty finding a rhythm as a team. None of the players on the team seemed capable of bringing a sense of composure to the outfit and the opponents took full advantage.
In sport, performance is not based solely on the individual’s capacity relative to the requirements of the game. It is the whole person that has to be prepared for each encounter.
Sports in often used to encourage critical thinking. On the field of competition these critical thinking skills are required all of the time.
Team-building exercises are to be taught at the same time that an athlete begins to practise a sport, and are applicable throughout one’s career, with increased proficiency being attained as one grows in the sport.
Conclusion
There is an urgent need to undertake a comprehensive review of the state of football in St Vincent and the Grenadines. There is now much easier access to financing for the more deliberate adoption of a scientific and professional approach to the development of the sport and its stakeholders.
Throughout the practice of sport, we all too often forget to engage in the monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) exercises. This scientific review of every aspect of the sport’s development must be built into the system of administration that the organisation puts in place.
It is extremely urgent for the SVG Football Federation to understand what went wrong, where, when and why, with our national team in the U17 Qualifiers hosted here. There must be immediate action taken in addressing the identified challenges and deficits and mechanisms tried to effect meaningful and sustainable improvements.
The pitfalls of the recent debacle in terms of our involvement as hoists through to performances on the field of play must be addressed with some urgency.
The SVGFF may already be in possession of many who are capable of doing what is required., Where there are shortfalls, they have the resources to involve the experts. In all things, however, we can get nowhere if we do not at all times infuse our work, with the increasingly confusing culture of our nation and how it impacts today’s youths.
