GUEST Speaker of the Guyana Olympic Association’s (GOA) 15th Awards Dinner Ceremony, Dr Ian McDonald A.A., last Saturday night applauded the progress of sports in Guyana while eloquently delivering his feature address which was rich with history and inspiring for future development. The former National tennis and squash player, who was himself a recipient of the said Award in 2007, was high in praise for the GOA while congratulating the 2010 Awardees during his address which captivated the gathering at the Georgetown Club for about 18 minutes.
“Let me sincerely congratulate the Sports Heroes who are celebrating tonight. It is wonderful to see since it was the main thrust of tonight.
“I sincerely commend the GOA for establishing and maintaining this tradition. To me it is evidence of a thoughtful and imaginative organisation, concerned not only with the development of sport in Guyana, but also with recognising the long contributions of Sports, Sportsmen and Sportswomen over the years. I am truly and greatly honoured to be invited by the GOA to say a few words on this special occasion,” stated Dr McDonald.
McDoanld, who is Trinidadian by birth, but lived in Guyana for most of his life, began his presentation with his family’s involvement in sports, ”Sport has been and remains an extremely important part in my life.
“The love of sport runs in the blood of my family. My great uncle Bertie Harrigan of T&T was vice-captain of the West Indies team which toured England in 1906 and he gained some fame from the very first match of that tour when he hit the grand old man of English Cricket, W.G Grace for six sixes in a flamboyant innings of fifty.
“My uncle Arthur McDonald of Antigua, captained the English Yachting team at the 1948 Olympics. I have a treasured picture of him taking the Olympic oath on behalf of the Sportsmen on that great occasion”
“I live for the love of sports from the time I could walk and talk. I was in competition myself from the age of 12 in Junior Tennis in T&T until my last playing days of squash and tennis in Guyana when I was in my fifties.
“So for over 40 years I enjoyed the adrenalin rush and the excitement of competition. There’s nothing like it, despite the disappointments and setbacks and losses along the way.
“I wouldn’t have missed for anything the challenges, the fun, the friendly rivalries and some good victories over those years.
“And after that there has been the constant joy and excitement of being a spectator of all the great sporting events in the world, thanks to television at its best. Hardly a day passes that I do not watch great sports and take additional pleasures from eventual discussions with friends”
“Sports has been a great joy to me as a spectator as well, even in the case of my beloved West Indies cricket team which in recent years I have vowed time and time again never to watch again, the anguish being too great.
Still, the vow only lasts until the next game, because whatever happens, WI cricket is a Spiritual Addiction, a Hunger in the Soul.”
“Let me say something about sport, today, in Guyana, if I may say, I am very impressed with the advances Guyana has been making. I see success in so many areas … there have been great success, and it is noteworthy that often it is the women who are doing their sport and Guyana proud,” McDonald declared to an uproar of applauses by the audience.
“There has been a significant, I suggest a very significant advance in activity and success when you add it all up. And it is not only on the fields of contest that progress has been made. At a very basic and a central level, the provision of infrastructure and facilities have also progressed.
A new Olympic-size swimming pool,  a new athletic track, a new racquet centre and good use of the new stadium. If all these facilities could be well maintained and efficiently, and regularly used, our future in Sports would be bright.
The Minister of Sport and his team and the various sporting associations ought to be greatly congratulated. I, for one, sense a vibrancy in sports which I have not sensed in a long time.”
His only worry for sport in Guyana at the moment is the impasse which exists in the Demerara Cricket Board, and he strongly recommended that the GOA take the matter in hand. There is one exception in this promising outlook for sports.
“What has been happening in the Administration of cricket is, in my opinion, a serious embarrassment. It is absolutely mortifying to all lovers of the great game. The players and cricket itself are the huge losers while this destructive infighting goes on.
“I know that cricket is not an Olympic Sport, but cannot the GOA assume the role of Custodian and intervene so as to bring peace and cooperation and effect a new renewal of good administration and accountability on all sides,” the Guest Speaker urged.