Dear Editor,

If Don Anderson’s research company were to do a survey of the proportion of the Jamaicans who believe that Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz can reach the FIFA 2023 Women’s Football World Cup final, and perhaps win it, they would likely to get a remarkable excess of 50 per cent, exceeding the measly 30-odd per cent of the electorate which bothered to vote in the last general election.

Politics and politicians could do well in taking a leaf out of the book of sports. But while there is good to be had from incorporating the tenets of sports into politics, the reverse would be a disaster for sports, as anything politics lays its hands on fades like dust in the wind.

Consider the following cross-references between politics and sports:

In recent times, the People’s National Party (PNP) has been chastised for “hitting below the belt”, both in its rhetoric and refusal to ‘cooperate’ or, as the sceptics of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) would term it, ‘conspire’. However, the PNP might not have any other option than to ‘play dirty’ if they are going to rescue Jamaica from the claws of the JLP. For, unlike the institution of sports, in which fair play and nobleness are enshrined, it is not so in Jamaica’s politics. There is no way the JLP could and would have ever made it to Jamaica House without ‘playing the game’.

Look at the matter of the goodly Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn, with the Bill to extend tenure. Llewellyn, being an avid cricket fan, would have seen former greats like Desmond Haynes holding their own among the younger West Indies batsmen, even at twice their age. If you are doing well at something, then why not be allowed. How ‘easy’ does Llewellyn’s responsibility to this nation feel to her? Perhaps a bit easier than it should, like how too many of our politicians take theirs.

Finally, their needs to be a week or two dedicated to our politicians engaging in competitive sports, be it dominoes, football, or track and field, competing under the banner of their respective political parties. How pleasing it would be to have the fitter, more trained and persistent political representative demonstrating that “argument done” after beating the defence and scoring goal or repeatedly passing the board to win the domino match.

Andre O Sheppy

Norwood, St James

astrangely@outlook.com