Best wishes for the new year

Tony Becca, Contributor

For those of us who love to clap and cheer, jump, sing, and dance, the year 2010 was not a good one. There was not a lot to celebrate, at least not as much as we have come to expect, especially in recent times.

One reason for that is this: it was not an Olympic year, or a World Championship year, even though, if we still remember the glory that it once brought to us, it was a football World Cup year.

Although there was no explosive run by the likes of Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Melaine Walker, and Brigitte Foster-Hylton etcetera, etcetera, Jamaica, however, still had enough to celebrate, enough to make others red with envy.

There was, for example, the performances of Trecia Smith, Lerone Clarke, Dorian Scott, Dexter Lee, Jermaine Gonzales, Kaliese Spencer, Nicolas Walters, Brendan Nash, Stefanie Taylor, Alia Atkinson, and Odean Skeen, the footballers winning the regional championship, the young netballers, and, of course, Chris Gayle and his triple century.

As we applaud these Jamaicans and the others who kept the flag flying in the past year, we look forward to what is expected this year, and remembering that this is a World Championship year, next year this time, we hope to be really celebrating a year of success.

As we set off in search of honours, however, my wish is that we conquer, and in conquering, I also wish that we do so graciously and with dignity, remembering that everything we do, win or lose, is done in the name of sport and for the betterment of sport and most important of all, regardless of how many compete, only one can win.

We should remember that regardless of how we are, regardless of how many compete, only one can win.

In recent times, Jamaica seems to be a nation which only wants to win, and while nothing is wrong with that, while that is only natural, there is something dangerous in that.

If only one can win, there can be no disgrace, no embarrassment in losing.

More important, however, is what that belief, the belief that winning is all, does to us as a people, how it affects us in sport.

Although sport seems to have changed in recent years with the coming of professionalism, with sport becoming a business, the meaning of sport, according to the dictionary, remains the same.

It is "an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual competes against another or others for entertainment".

On top of that, sport is not limited to any race or class, creed or religion, to any man, rich or poor, and because of that, any man, depending on his level of skill, can win, or lose.

The important thing about sport, about playing sport, is that first we have a love, sometimes a passion for it, and then, if we find that we can play it well, that we have exceptional skills, we hone those skills until they are good enough and then we play it at the elite level, at the international level.

The difference with those who play and those who watch is that those who watch either do not possess the level of skill, they do not love it that much, or they are more gifted elsewhere, and that is only natural.

The problem is this: the more Jamaicans win internationally, the more they stay away from local sports events.

Jamaicans have become so sophisticated in recent times that the more they win the more they stay away, and that is Jamaica's problem.

Once upon a time, huge crowds used to be present at local events, and in particular at cricket, football, and track and field. Today that is not so, and that is regrettable.

Although it may be due to the passage of time, to the increase of the number of sport played in this country and thus the spreading of the interest of the people, to the time available to watch sport due to the pressures of everyday life, and to the presence of television, it is still sad.

It suggests that Jamaicans do not really love sport for what sport is, for the beauty of sport, for developing their skills to a high level, for meeting people, for making friends, and for visiting new and exciting places.

Sport needs crowds

It suggests that they love sport only when they are winning.

The danger with that is we run the risk of hurting sport.

Sport needs crowds, and if sport does not have crowds, sport will suffer. It will suffer because the players, the performers, do not like to play, to perform, before empty stands.

And it will suffer for another reason.

Sponsorship, in today's world, is the life-blood of sport, and without spectators, there will be no sponsors. It is as simple as that.

Jamaica's sport administrators seem not to even think about that, however: they seem to believe that the Government can fund every sport and will fund each and every one of them.

There is a saying, however, it goes like this: the spirit may be willing but the flesh is weak, and as much as little Jamaica may want to, Jamaica may not be able and should not be able, not unless it turns sport into a business, and not unless it cares little about the many people living in poverty, without proper health care, without enough food, without a roof over their heads, without enough security, and without education.

My wish for Jamaica is that in this new year, Jamaicans will show the world that they love sport, that they enjoy sport, and that in doing so, they will continue to win many things, and win them gracefully and with dignity.