The T&T Warriors’ triumph over Bahrain on Wednesday has brought T&T together in a victory celebration, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said yesterday.
He added that Government was still to decide how to honour the team.
“We have to discuss how the Government will mark this very sterling contribution,” he said during the welcome-home function for the team at Piarco International Airport yesterday.
Manning, who leaves T&T this afternoon for a 13-day trip to Israel, Malta and England, said he would speak with team captain Dwight Yorke and announce later what they would do to honour the Warriors.
The Prime Minister also assured that the team’s coach, Dutchman Leo Beenhakker, still had a job.
“And the Government of T&T will ensure that,” he said.
With the Warriors’ win, Manning said, T&T would be the smallest country in the world to participate in the World Cup finals in Germany next year.
“When I look at the performance of the Bahrain team and the T&T team, I saw the difference between those who aspire and those who achieve,” he told thousands of supporters gathered at the airport.
“I salute those who, by virtue of their dedication and commitment to a country and to a sport, made us proud and brought our country together, all at the same time.”
Manning said he would never have foreseen that he and Fifa vice-president (and UNC deputy leader) Jack Warner would ever speak from the same platform.
“But today, I am pleased to share a platform with Austin Jack Warner. Whatever anybody thinks about him, there is one thing on which we can agree—he has been dedicated to the sport.”
Manning said the team’s achievement was made much more significant by the fact that they were playing away from home, in front of a hostile crowd that did everything to dissuade their supporters.
“But you can’t keep a Trini down. The team had to face hostility before the match and a kind of hostility after the match to which we’re not accustomed in this country.
“When we lost the match in 1989, we faced a similar situation in T&T with the US. The people in the audience at the National Stadium applauded the American team.
“That, unfortunately, was not the case today,” he said, referring to the riot that broke out after the T&T-Bahrain match on Wednesday in Manama.
Not too long ago, he said, T&T was celebrating Brian Lara’s 400 runs. The Warriors’ victory now made history yet another time.
Manning said he had two artificial valves in his heart, and a pacemaker.
“So I had decided that when they (team) returned home, I’ll charge them wear and tear. I have been worn out, but what sweet victory it is.
“I don’t think the players will ever understand how I felt, and how the people of T&T felt, when we saw that head move with that ball.”
Also speaking were Fifa vice-president Warner, Sports Minister Roger Boynes, Oliver Camps and goal-hero Dennis Lawrence, who said he hoped the victory would help bring T&T together.
He also called for an end to the current crime scourge, saying he hoped the win would be “the start of what can only be peace, love and harmony in T&T.”