Vapse Planning the Order of the Day in SVG Sports
Planning is generally viewed as a scientific process. A cursory search across several sources reveal agreement on a definition that planning has to do with setting goals and objectives that emerge from an organisation’s vision and mission statements.
The objectives are usual specific, measurable and time bound.
It is also a generally held view that monitoring, evaluating and learning are critical to ensuring that the planning process in any organisation allows for an understanding of and accommodation to changes that may occur during the period of implementation.
It is unfortunate that in many instances, organisation leaders are prone to being self-opinionated that they decide on courses of action and engage in their own perception of ‘planning’ as they undertake projects. This is often the case in the Caribbean. The concept of ‘vapse’ planning speaks to this latter approach. The leader appears to wake up one morning and decides that this or that project is a good idea or one that would serve his/her perception of what should be undertaken and immediately sets about marketing it while it is being implemented. This approach leads to good money being wasted and reflects an absence of leadership as a discipline. Because we in the Caribbean stand idly by as our leaders do whatever they may well deem politically expedient, the region is replete with examples that begs the question of whether or not they pay any attention to planning as a scientific endeavour.
Cricket World Cup 2007 (CWC2007)
In my Column dated 26 November 2010 I wrote, ‘It has almost been four years since St Vincent and the Grenadines hosted what this columnist insists were ‘goat cook’ matches, otherwise known as warm up matches for the Cricket World Cup 2007. To this day it is virtually impossible to glean precisely how this country has benefited. It is the contention of this columnist that the exercise was a colossal waste of scarce resources and that the beneficiaries are delightfully few. CWC2007 in St Vincent and the Grenadines was more of a political exercise than a sports event.
The Bid
When St Vincent and the Grenadines agreed to submit a bid one wondered why we even bothered. We were well aware that we were not considered among the big league and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), and the International Cricket Council (ICC) were intent on selecting venues where they could garner large gate receipts. While many boasted of the windfall to be derived from the sale of television rights, most of which belong to the ICC anyway, the reality was that both organisations desired large gate receipts.
This country’s bid for one or more of the competition matches was fraught with difficulties from the very start. Of course, it was always held that we did not know what was necessary and so we sought expertise elsewhere. The outcome was the expected failure.
Of course in our case failure did not mean the end. We had to get something; anything.
St Vincent and the Grenadines actually accepted the ‘goat cook’ matches that were rejected by Bermuda, a country with a much higher per capita income. It was virtually a no contest bid. We got what nobody else wanted.
In the Column dated 26 October 2007 it was put this way:
“The decision of the local authorities here to take up the Cricket World Cup 2007 package of warm up matches that was rejected by Bermuda largely because of the outcome of its cost-benefit analysis remains one of the most flawed in the history, not just of sport, but of all St Vincent and the Grenadines. The only grouping to whom the decision made any sense, even in the aftermath of CWC2007 is that of those immediately involved in the organising of it. To them the decision was great and the opportunity to be part of the CWC2007 was more important than anything they would probably experience during their lifetime.”
The sentiments expressed back then are still most valid.
Why then did we bid? The answer to this lies in pure, unadulterated politics.
This country has no sports marketing strategy. This meant that we would have been unable to creatively impact the global sports marketplace with any degree of confidence.’
17 years of near decadence
17 years after the wastage and debilitating seemingly political decision regarding 2007, the toilets downstairs the double-decker stand at the Arnos Vale Playing Field finally got the attention it deserved. Finally, the toilets were replaced, having been completely out of bounds since the first of the ‘goat cook’ matches were played at the prestigious ground. All a matter of the near absence of any maintenance plan for all the millions that had been spent on the facilities.
It took an individual to point out to the authorities some years ago, the tragedy waiting to happen when he observed that the rivets on some of the galvanised roofing had rusted to such an extent that some sheets were flapping with the wind.
All around the various stands, there was extensive rusting of exposed steel and the continued destruction of the once comfortable seating provided for 2007.
It became obvious to anyone with a modicum of good sense that if the country wanted to bid to be among the host nations for the ICC T20 World Cup of 2024, that extensive expenditures would have to be undertaken.
Importantly, with Kishore Shallow of St Vincent and the Grenadines being the incumbent president of Cricket West Indies, it would have been a colossal embarrassment if we did not raise our hands to join other regional hosts.
Comprehensively changed facilities
Those who have listened to the apparent self-congratulating mouthing of Prime Minister Gonsalves in the lead up to this country’s hosting of a Group in the T20 World Cup, would have heard, repeatedly, the financial expenditures of the government of the day. Whether there will be full disclosure of such expenditure through the provision of audits, is another matter.
The international community was as impressed as the Vincentian public with the changes made to finally, have St Vincent and the Grenadines, upgrade its cricket infrastructure at Arnos Vale, to be consistent with contemporary international standards.
The revamped Arnos Vale Cricket grounds, #1 and #2, were very well prepared and provided our people with a sense of pride at what is possible when we so desire to impress. Each of the teams that came here had good things to say about the facilities and our people.
We did well.
Of course, there were hiccups here and there, but these are to be expected on occasions such as the hosting of mega sporting events.
We may well have extended ourselves to expend resources ion some facilities that were not necessary, given the culture of our Vincentian people. But we seized the opportunity to shine.
Reality check
Anyone understanding Vincentian politics may well hold the view that with general elections pending, the government of the day would have seen the hosting of the T20 World Cup events as a major boost for its chances to garner or retain votes. The expenses could be touted as perhaps a major tourism investment, although, not necessarily sport tourism. There is a fundamental difference readily observed by students of sport.
Caribbean leaders’ penchant for megalomania was not lost on the apparent ‘glorification’ of the newly placed facilities. In the process, few observed the failure to replace the clock on the Players’ Pavilion, destroyed within less than a year after being erected in 2007.
The fact that until now, for the past several years, the Arnos Vale Sports facilities were used by many national sports associations was completely ignored. There was no convening of a meeting of the users relative to discussing the proposed plans for the facilities and if, when and how, they would be in any way allowed access and usage, in the future.
The thousands of dollars expended, for example, by Team Athletics St Vincent and the Grenadines (TASVG), to construct and maintain the pit and runway for the horizontal jumps and the concreted throwing areas for the Shot and Discus throwing events did not seem to be given any consideration in the changes made to the facilities.
Rugby, Netball, Basketball and football, all appeared to have been ignored in the planning process.
The future of the hardcourts at the Arnos Vale Sports Complex has not yet involved the individual sports. Rugby has been literally moving ‘from pillar to post’ seeking to get pieces of ground on which to practice. They have no designated competition arena.
In hindsight, the approach to the re-creation of the Arnos Vale Sports Complex, appeared to have been at such a high level that one can only conclude that the focus may well have been more on the impact of the changes on voting patterns of the nation’s youths than an exercise in scientific planning. This may well also be reflected in the persistent announcements of lights for the stadium at Diamond and the upgrading of the football field but precious little mention of athletics, the nation’s most successful sport at the regional and international levels in the nation’s sporting history.
The fact is that there is evidence of the ‘vapse’ planning that may also be described as political expediency.
Sport, as the hosting of the T20 World Cup has shown, brings people together as entertainment for some and as career options for others. The hosting of events is often a choice deliberately made by a national or regional sporting body, which then makes its case for the requisite support, inclusive of infrastructure, of the national and/or regional government(s). The organisation of these mega sporting spectacles is never overtly political, even though they almost always have strong political underpinnings.
National sports associations are to be above the narrow political patronage systems that characterise national politics. They ought to be involved in the decision-making processes for sporting infrastructure and the broader contribution that sport can make to genuine national development.
Our national development strategy must, necessarily, allow for ideas of the broadest majority and diversity to contend. Our persistent failure to accept this truism is undertaken at our peril.
