Government backbencher Marsha Caddle has no problem with the “moonshot” ideas outlined in the Green Paper On The National Sports Policy, but she wants the authorities to solve the “bread-and-butter issues” at the grassroots level first.
Caddle, who represents St Michael South Central in the House of Assembly, suggested that doing more for sports in communities may require the National Sports Council (NSC) to be given more resources and for the NSC and sports associations and federations to cooperate more.
“I support a sports policy that starts from the bread-and-butter issues, and only thereafter starts to take on the moonshots that are identified in this green paper. The members who spoke before me did a wonderful job of examining all of the economic, social, developmental, [and] psychological targets that we can set with respect to sports in Barbados,” she said during debate on the green paper.
However, the former minister added that she believed “that investment in sport at the community level still has a lot of gaps and I perceive that the Sports Council is trying very hard”. (SC)
