Warner slams "incompetent" sports minister

Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner has taken issue with comments in the Trinidad and Tobago media attributed to Sports Minister Gary Hunt.

Hunt is reported to have told the media there will be no reward for Trinidad and Tobago’s successful cricket team.

"They did not win. At this point reward is not being contemplated, however it would be discussed," the minister is quoted as saying. Media reports also say Hunt has indicated that no welcoming ceremony has been planned for the team.

In a media statement, Warner said, "Such assertions qualify unequivocally as ramblings of incompetence, and political ineffectiveness. It points to a Minister who is unfocused, myopic and strategically blinkered."

Warner added, "The statement is an indication that the Minister operates by political “vaps” and without any Sports policy, strategy or plan."

Warner noted that at the end of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the Soca Warriors team and technical staff received a total reward package of $31 million.

"In my capacity as special advisor to TTFF, I was in heavy praise of that act of rewarding our national footballers. The Soca Warriors did not win that prestigious tournament, far from it," the CONCACAF chairman said.

However he noted that that the act of rewarding them "would have been because of the immense pride and joy the team had injected into the heart of the nation. Winning was not the motive then and should not be now."

Warner said the minister's assertion about “not winning” lacks logic and basic common sense.

"Our national cricketers have won the hearts of the international cricketing community, not just for the superb quality of their performances but also for the spirit in which they have played.

"They have ignited the passions across the globe and have reinvigorated the fervour for the sport in the Caribbean. That in itself is deserving of national acclaim and tangible reward," Warner stated.

He reiterated his numerous calls for a National Policy on sport that would include a policy on rewarding sports heroes "who do us proud internationally". He said such a policy would operate “across the board”, irrespective of sporting discipline.

"Had this policy been in place, there would be no need to “contemplate” whether awards are due since there would be written guidelines to be applied," he said.

"Minister Hunt’s brazen rebuke of our cricketers is a national disgrace which the nation would do well to “contemplate” upon when next they are called to exercise their constitutional franchise," the Chaguanas MP said.