FORMER SCOTLAND CAP DEFENDS SGU POLICY RE ALLYN DICK FUNDING

E-mail from Steven Carmichael
Scotland international late 1990s-early 2000s.

 

As you will know I received funding for many years from both the Lottery fund and indeed the SGU.

I was a very willing recipient of it as it greatly helped pay expenses but I never felt that I needed it to justify travelling to tournaments.

It's a belief in your own ability that takes you to Lytham, not the fact someone pays your petrol money.

I'm probably a decent example of a 'waste' of SGU / Lottery funds. I was never going to turn Pro and if my understanding of the role of these funds for 'Elite Players'  is correct then it's to nurture and develop talent to be a success at the highest levels of the game.

Of course, guys like Simon Mackenzie, Glenn Campbell, Jonathon King and myself played a part in keeping the amateur team have a strength in depth for a long number of years but its hardly the future to keep fundings guys of a certain age who will one day just 'retire' as I did, Simon did and Jonny did.

If they, the funders, have learned from this experience then they are to be applauded. 

Of course you shouldn't discriminate on grounds of age but I don't believe there's a law discriminating against someone's perceived lack of progress / performance. 

I should add that I don't know Allyn Dick at all so clearly this isn't aimed at the withdrawal of his funding, more a comment on the general issue raised by his article.

Steven W Carmichael

Vikare Investments Ltd

Mayfair
London