Ganga open to election bid

Ganga open to election bid

Reshma Ragoonath
Published: Guardian
Sunday, August 24, 2014


Sports ambassador and former T&T cricket captain Daren Ganga will give “serious consideration” to entering electoral politics if the opportunity presents itself. However, he hastened to add that entering politics was a “far-fetched” thought at this point as his focus was on helping young people.

In an interview with the Sunday Guardian yesterday, after the closing ceremony for the Daren Ganga Foundation cricket and football summer camps at the Barrackpore East Secondary School, Ganga commented on reports that had been circulating for several weeks that he was a potential candidate for the United National Congress (UNC) in the 2015 general elections. He described the reports as “all speculation” and said he had not been approached by any political party to contest the elections.

“If there are opportunities in relation to what you are talking about, obviously I will give it serious consideration, but I have not made any decisions at all with regard to that and I continue to serve young people and sports,” he said Ganga, the executive chairman of the Daren Ganga Foundation, expressed concern over the growing number of young people who were being killed. He said he was trying, through his foundation, to reach out to young people and instill proper values including discipline.

“Every time stories like this pop up in the media it is really, really unfortunate. But your sense of hope and your sense of determination are only strengthened and that is what happens to me. I am even more determined, when I see instances like these to make a positive difference,” he said. Ganga said his foundation was limited in its resources and could only operate camps in the community of Barrackpore. However, the camps were open to anyone in T&T and continued to be “oversubscribed.”

Yesterday, 66 participants graduated from the camps, including 13 girls. “It is our hope that these young people become leaders and pioneers in their own right to carry on the work of the foundation and to have a domino effect throughout our society,” Ganga said. West Indies cricketer and world’s number one T20 bowler Samuel Badree, who gave the feature address at the ceremony, urged the young participants to use the knowledge and training they received at the camps in their daily lives.

He told them that while it was good to dream of becoming the best cricketer or footballer, they must not allow their academics to suffer. “You must have something to fall back on,” he advised.

I mean why not? Everyone would like to go into politics. So many benefits and not much accountability makes it the perfect job. Ganga is no different from so many others would would jump into politics if given the chance.