By Neto Baptiste
Under the rule of a new United Progressive Party (UPP) government, Barbuda will not be left behind where the development of sports and sporting infrastructure is concerned.
This is according to former MP and a former UPP senator, Chester Hughes, who said the party’s plan for sports, should they win the next general elections constitutionally due in 2023, is that any plans executed here in Antigua will be mirrored in the sister isle.
“Everything that is being done in Antigua, Barbuda is part of it holistically. We are a unitary State, so the facilities in Barbuda must be upgraded because Barbuda plays mainly three sports – basketball, horse racing and cricket,” he said.
Hughes said the UPP’s planned investment in coaching and administrative education will also go a long way towards improving sports in Barbuda.
“You can’t have sports without trained coaches, and we would go through a real serious and rigorous training of personnel, and provide employment of trained persons in all disciplines so that they are dispatched throughout Antigua and Barbuda in order to get sports on the rise. Barbuda will not be left behind in any sporting development that a UPP government implements,” he said. Sports in Barbuda has been, for the most part, neglected by central governments with little or no development of its infrastructure and or sporting programmes over the past 20 years, and with the exception of basketball, there is no participation in school competitions put on by the sports ministry.