NATIONAL coach Anton Corneal has to put on his thinking cap, I recommend, before he gets himself into a confrontation with the Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL).

Listening to Atomic Anton and Whimsy Wim on the issue of our national Under-16 players, one would think that national football is the be-all and end-all of these youngsters’ lives.

If it is so important -- qualification for the Under-17 World Youth Championships -- then don’t stop with the SSFL. Why not take them away from their environment, parents and education and let them play football for eight hours every day so they can concentrate on qualification?

But after qualification, what’s next?

Is T&T going to be ‘also rans’ or are the young Jumpers and Wavers going to win the global tournament?

I suspect Atomic Anton is being hasty, although it appears he has good intentions as a coach, but, as a guardian and mentor for those youngsters, he’s way too absent-minded for my liking.

Perhaps, Atomic Anton should try to remember the pride he took in wearing his Fatima College colours in those battles with St. Mary’s College and Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive back in the 70s when players like Ian Clauzel, Christian Rodriquez and himself drew the crowds and entertained the fans, and how much that helped in his development as a footballer, scholar and, I might add, as a human being.

Now, our world is going to be turned upside down by Atomic Anton, because the Jumpers and Waves qualified for Germany 2006 and our technical experts are setting unrealistic goals (forgive the pun) for all our National teams.

It would seem, to this humble scribe, that we have lost all sense of reality, and our senior coaches are hell-bent on going to every FIFA “World Cup”, even if that means destroying the traditional nursery for our young players.

ANTON CORNEAL

Sir CLYDE WALCOTT

FRANK WORRELL

I would have preferred that Atomic Anton create an alternative solution, rather than trying to destroy what the young players cherish so much and what is considered for so many the highlight of the local football season.

The rhetoric all sounds good, though; Atomic Anton’s insistence that we have to have our priorities straight and the national interest should come first. (I just hope the parents find their voices and put an end to this nonsense talk.)

Did our national coaches take into consideration the views of the parents of these boys before coming to their draconian proposal?

I may be wrong but it seems like a done deal; the players are going to be banned from playing for their schools because the “intensity level” is too low and they have to do “strength training.”

By the way, are Atomic Anton and Whimsy Wim guaranteeing those boys a place in the next under-17 world championships if they give up playing for their schools?

Life has its challenges and I think the know-all coaches should spend a little time developing a plan for the youngsters that includes them playing for their schools, so they can have the best of both worlds, without Atomic Anton taking after the SSFL with a big club.

This just seems so unnecessary and our technical experts should think careful before they execute this master plan; just a word of wisdom from someone with far more grey hair than Atomic Anton.

Give the boys the chance to be boys and stop talking about what Haiti is doing.

A few golden eras came to an end recently and I would like to take the opportunity to pay tribute to President Noor Hassanali, who was featured in my hour-long documentary, A Positive Choice, back in the late 90s, and Sir Clyde Walcott, indomitable West Indian cricket legend and Caribbean statesman.

The genesis of the documentary was the holistic benefits of combining sports and academics and the former President was most gracious to be featured in the programme as a footballer at Naparima College and his university days in Canada who went on to be one of the finest jurists this country has ever produced.

Sir Clyde was a living legend in West Indies cricket for so many years it is hard to accept that he has left us.

I last spoke to Sir Clyde in 2004 when I attended the annual Sir Frank Worrell lecture at the Cave Hill Campus, Barbados.

I had gone there to promote my idea of a documentary on the life of Sir Frank Worrell and I was shocked to see Sir Clyde in attendance, confined to a wheelchair.

I was much relieved when he confided that his injury was merely temporary and we engaged in a rather enlightening discussion about the proposed documentary. Of course, he was all for it and lamented the fact that it had been so long since Sir Frank death that the idea was being mooted.

Sir Clyde even whispered in my ear that Sir Frank has an heir, a fact that had never been revealed to me before, because I knew that Sir Frank’s daughter, Alana, had also died, sadly, like her father in her early 40s.

I have had some rather fortunate moments in my life and on one of my visits to Barbados (I don’t remember the year) in the early 80s, I was picked up at the Airport by Alana Worrell!

I was not working in the media at the time but I had long been fascinated with Sir Frank, so when I sat in that old Mercedes Benz with her behind the wheel I had the feeling I was with royalty.

Sports fans, I spent the entire drive looking at her in wonder and we chatted quite a bit, although I can’t remember much else about the trip.

So you can imagine my excitement when Sir Clyde told me that Alana had a son and that the father of “the boy” was one of Sir Clyde’s sons and he added that the young Worrell/Walcott was living in obscurity in Canada.

Can you imagine that?

A West Indian with the blood of Sir Clyde Walcott and Sir Frank Worrell in his veins is living in Canada!

Surely, this is an issue for Caricom to address.

I remember the lugubrious and hurt look on Sir Clyde’s face when he related the tale and I would think that an effort should be made to find out what is the status of this young Worrell/Walcott and see if we can have him return home and be given his rightful place in our West Indian civilisation.

Sports fans, we have lost much and the real sad thing is we are not even aware of what we have lost.

On the very day that the West Indies face Pakistan in the opening match of the ICC Cricket World Cup at Sabina Park, Jamaica (March 13, 2007), it will be exactly 40 years since Sir Frank left us (March 13, 1967), and it hurts me that more Australians know who Sir Frank Worrell was than West Indians.

The question is: who is going to step up and right this wrong?

How do we, as a people, commemorate the life of, arguably, the greatest West Indian who ever lived?

Whither the torch bearer?