I have read that several well known citizens have supported the fact that several ministries and state agencies collaborated to invite basketball icon Shaquille O'Neal to Trinidad and Tobago to launch the Hoop of Life initiative.

While I think that the programme could be a step in the right direction, provided it is well managed, I disagree with the fact that we needed to invest in the basketball icon to launch this programme. I am of the view that we have our very own sporting heroes who could be just as, or even more, influential.

Some may say we don't have any icon in the field of basketball but did we really need the basketball superstar to kickstart this event, or couldn't we have used our own sporting icons?

In my view and in the view of much of the Caribbean and in particular Trinidad and Tobago Mr O'Neal, no disrespect to him, could never be a bigger sporting icon than Brian Charles Lara. I think I heard Mr O'Neal say that he will be back at the end of the competition. Well, how nice it would have been if we had used our own, to not only launch this initiative, but also to stop by the action in the various areas from time to time.

It would have been so good on Saturday to have had the likes of not only Mr Lara but also Dwight Yorke, Shaka Hislop, Hasely Crawford, Ato Boldon, Daren Ganga, even a few of our present stars like Kelly Ann Baptiste, and Daren Bravo just to name some, to be in the same place at the same time to launch this project.

I heard the gist of Mr O'Neal's message, and most, if not all of our sporting heroes can identify with him.

A Pierre

Marabella