Dear Editor,

While there can be no serious argument that with the coronavirus reaching Jamaica, mass spectator events such as Boys and Girls Championships (Champs) cannot take place at this time, I am yet to hear a persuasive argument as to why this event had to be cancelled instead of merely postponed.

Professional sports teams in North America, as well as elsewhere, have been suspending competition for now, not cancelling a whole season.  The decision is even more perplexing when we read that ISSA is merely postponing competitions in other sports. This is because no one knows how long or short  the duration of the pandemic will be.

There is precedent for postponement (or that naughty word “suspension” that principals prefer to use). Many moons ago, before most of your readers were born, Asian Flu struck our schoolboy football season just before the Olivier Shield, symbol of national schoolboy supremacy.

But the Olivier Shield was not cancelled, merely postponed, albieit for two months. The competition was decided only three days before Christmas long after schools broke for holidays. The world didn’t come to an end.

Where is it written that Champs must be held the last week in March? What about April, May, June or July? Are we to believe that, should the coronavirus threat be defeated, that we couldn’t find four days before or after exams to hold this national high school event? In the absence of further and better particulars from our decision makers we are left to shake our collective heads.

Errol W A Townshend