By Neto Baptiste
Minister of Education, Sports & Creative Industries, Daryll Matthew, has shot down the notion that sports could be a “standalone’ ministry with a person solely dedicated to managing the industry from a national standpoint.
“The answer is no; it is not necessary. If the prime minister sees it fit then that is fine but I don’t think the sports ministry is a big enough ministry and remember that initially, when I got elected, my ministry was sports, culture, national festivals and the arts which are effectively two small ministries but one of the things I found is that it is not enough to warrant a standalone ministry for sports. However, what I believe needs to happen is that I do believe there needs to be an overhaul within the Ministry of Sports because I am not satisfied that the sports department functions in a way that I am happy with,” he said.
His statement follows suggestions by a number of influential sporting figures here — to include president of the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA) Leon Rodney and former West Indies fast bowler Kenneth Benjamin — that making the ministry more self-sustaining could be the first step towards ensuring the country could maximise the benefits to be derived from the sports tourism industry.
Matthew however agreed there is a need for an overhaul regarding the methods currently been used in some areas of the ministry.
“I believe we need to have a better talent identification programme in the ministry of sports. It needs to be somebody’s job to go around to the different schools, to the different events; somebody who is adequately trained who can look at an athlete and say that just based on your muscle structure as an eight-year-old that you can be a sprinter so you need somebody whose job it is to do that and I have, in fact, written to the cabinet to have an established post created for someone to do talent identification,” he said.
A recent report published by The Business Research Company, a Market Intelligence company that excels in company, market, and consumer research, revealed that the global sports market grew from $486.61 billion in 2022 to $512.14 billion in 2023 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.2 percent.
