CONTRIBUTIONS

OF
SPORT to the development of the Caribbean

DONE BY :
 Generation of Income
• Sports has become a major economic activity in the region, generation
income for many individuals, avenue for economic linkages as apart from
players/team there is need for managers, trainers, coaches, nutritionist,
doctors, administrator, ground men, hotel, vendors etc, designers,
manufactures, psychologists, physiotherapists and transport
• One way that professionals sports and organized sporting associations
can contribute to development in the region is by marketing their
activities to generate increase income. This increase productive activity
in the economy and enables a particular sport to be self-sufficient. As it
is, almost every sport in the Caribbean has to rely on some form of
assistance from outside its club or association. If there is a recognized
potential for drawing many spectators, particularly from both regional
and international countries, a sporting body will usually be able to
acquire government and corporate assistance to mount a particular
competition or tournament. Les popular sports receive less funding.
• However, the increase leisure time that people have is a resource
that can be tapped if attractive enough packages deals (airline,
hotel and tickets to games) are made available. Even if a sport is
not as popular as, say cricket or football, the leisure that people
have in the Caribbean and elsewhere, provides an opportunity
that can be factored into its marketing strategies.
• As a result games are played in venues beyond the traditional
cricketing grounds of Bourda (Guyana), Queen’s Park Oval
(Trinidad and Tobago), Kensington Oval (Barbados, the Antigua
Recreation Grounds and Sabina Park (Jamaica). Aronos Vale
Sporting Grounds (St. Vincent), queen’s Park (Grenada), Warner
Park (St. Kitts-Nevis) and Beausejour Stadium (St. Lucia) are
among the additional venues enabling more Caribbean people to
see the West Indies team live. This means higher gate receipts
and more profits for the West Indian cricket Board (WICB).
 Sports, income and the mass media
• To a large extent the profitability of sport is dependent on its links
with information and communication technology (ICTs). The mass
media dominate how professional sporting activities are portrayed
and in fact influence how successful those activities are.
• The mass media publicize events across the region and among
various media houses there is competition to buy the rights to
record and broadcast live and taped broadcast of matches. For
cricket, these rights are often worth millions of dollars, which go to
the WICB. These monies can be re-invested to develop the sport
further through increase salaries for players, better prize monies
and incentives, buying the services of higher-quality coaches and
technical expertise, staging more sporting events and training
amateurs and young enthusiasts through clinics and sporting
camps.
• With technology and the mass media persons
can now watch the game at home, matches that
are delayed telecast, or in real time only the live
event is sold out. Inadvertently, this threatens
the persons who depend on the event itself for
an income-food and drinks vendors, retailers of
items with sporting logos and products endorsed
by sporting heroes, transport workers and those
providing support services (for example , those
who maintain the sporting facilities.
 Sport, income and employment
• The growth of sports for entertainment (elite athletes, high-profile teams)
as well as for physical activity (as recreation) has contributed to the
generation of both income and employment in the region. For example,
professional players receive large salaries and additional income from
endorsement contracts, which are taxed by their respective countries,
and so too are the profits of the WICB.
• Coaches and those involved in sports management –from technical
experts, nutritionist, personal trainers and instructors to medical
personnel and other support staff- represent growing areas of
employment. This is likely to continue to grow as the idea of sport as
physical activity or recreation, important for everyone, is promoted. More
specialized areas are coming into being- sports medicine, sports
psychology and exercise psychology- contribute to a new set of workers in
the sports sector.
• In addition , the building and maintenance of sport
stadiums and other infrastructure and facilities
provide employment for construction workers and
others; the production of sports goods and
equipment involves manufacturing, marketing and
retailing; the administration of sport and sporting
facilities requires managers and clerical workers;
and advertising and sport journalism have
spawned journals, magazines and websites
devoted to sports news and issues generating a
database of particular sports and sports icons.
 Health and fitness
• Sports enhances physical well being of people.
Physical, emotionally, psychological fitness,
lead to awareness in healthy
lifestyle...renewed interest in exercise, diet, its
improves health means reduction in health
cost to countries/region as well as a healthier
labour force( greater production)
• The health benefits of keeping physically active are widely
known. Lower rates of heart diseases, stroke, obesity and
osteoporosis are some of the benefits of being physically
active. Physical movement leads to the strengthening of
bones, muscles and the cardio-vascular system. These in turn
contribute to greater endurance and physical fitness,
enabling the athlete or individual to improve performance.
To consistently improve fitness and strength, however, a
dietary regimen and lifestyle that enhances good health and
well-being must be followed. Thus, sports professionals and
those whose engage in sports for recreation tend to be
vigilant about what they eat, abstain from alcohol and
smoking as well s from other drugs, and try to organize their
lives so that they get enough sleep.
 Educational opportunities
• Its has also enabled individuals to improve educational opportunities at
tertiary level through scholarships offered both locally to UWI, UTECH and
GC Foster) as well a s North America, avenues for upward social mobility,
world fame, status and income.
• Demonstrating excellence in a particular sport can help Caribbean
students to access higher education. On qualifying, they can attain social
mobility, earn more income and use their expertise in improving
conditions in whatever line of work they find themselves when they
return home. The US sports scholarship has emerged in recent years as an
alternative path for associate the scholarship and US universities with
more prestige than local alternatives. To this end the most talented
secondary school students in sport routinely take the SATs to be eligible
for US universities and complete as far as possible in meet where scouts
from universities may be present
• Thousands of Caribbean students are now studying at universities abroad,
whether on a full or partial sport scholarship. The US has many avenues
through which our students can access funding-grants for under represented
minorities, grants offered by Caribbean people in the diaspora for those
students resident in the Us and of Caribbean heritage, and at certain
universities grants offered by their international alumni for disadvantaged
students from the Caribbean. Local organizations, too, are beginning to offer
sports scholarships. For example, the Caribbean Tourism Organization now
provides scholarships and study grants for those athletes wishing to study
tourism hospitality and languages locally.
• A scholarship offers a rout to a professional career in a particular sport or a
career in other disciplines studied at the university. The educational
opportunities that are accessed through this means can result in development
for the Caribbean. If the athletes return to the Caribbean, he or she adds to the
cadre of professional talent, either in sport or other areas. People achieving
tertiary education are able to earn a fairly high standard of living in the
Caribbean. They are also able to contribute to the national good through their
expertise in different fields
• Sports scholarships exposes an athlete to training and
professional expertise as well as a level of competition
that will hardly be found in a small Caribbean country. In
quite another sport can contribute to educational
opportunities for youths. An active sports programme
designed for students and out of school youth can set up
alternatives paths, especially for ‘at-risk’ youths, which
help them to stay in school, refrain from unhealthy
practices and even learn marketable skills with a sports
programme. As an avenue for out of school youth to
access educational opportunities, sport thus has the
potential to contribute to national development by
reducing costly risky behaviours.
 Sense of Caribbean Identity
• Success at sport, particularly competitive sports, is popularly seen as a
means towards achieving a common feeling of Caribbean identity. Cricket
has been able to do this as most Caribbean countries identify with the
West Indies Cricket Team. A large part of the success of cricket in building a
Caribbean identity is due to the fact that it can draw on players from all
Caribbean countries.
• There is no single bond that unites Caribbean people so much as cricket. It
cannot be understood just as a game, it is too closely associated with
British rule and colonialism. They see the Caribbean person as having made
a commitment to things British, subconsciously or not. Thus cricket that
very British institution, was not abandoned but rather embraced and West
Indianized, making it into something fiery and better than the British
version. Besting the British at their own beloved sport has been an
important part of our decolonization process and a performance through
which we have been able to find ourselves and develop our capabilities.
• Where other sports are concerned- football, track and
field events and swimming- the success of Caribbean
athletes represents their individual countries in
international competition has been a source of pride for all
Caribbean people. For example, the long and successful
history of Jamaica in the track and field, second only to the
US in the amount of medals won, is an astounding feat,
given our scarce resources in promoting sport. Football or
soccer is widely popular all over the region and the
qualifying matches for the World Cup present a unique
opportunity to see the many classes and social groups in
Caribbean society feeling a sense of common identity as
they cheer on their national football teams.
 Discipline and moral
• It has led to the development of good citizens, it develops qualities in
individuals such as team spirit, loyalty, dedication, flexibility, humility and
discipline.
• One of the benefits of playing a sport is the appreciation the participant
develops for a disciplined approach to the game, as well as the cooperation
or teamwork necessary for success in many sports. Serious athletes learn to
pit themselves against their last best performance in their high moral
character by observing the spirit of fair play, honesty and endurance that the
sport demand. In committing to excellence in performance in preparing for
competition, in winning or losing, an athlete’s main concern is how he or she
plays the game. An athlete knows that the highest form of discipline and
morale comes from the journey and not necessarily from the finish. Sports
then, have long been promoted as having character-building potential for
individuals, depending on how they approach and play the game.
• Winning at all cost encourages dishonest practices such as taking
illegal drugs and engaging in tactics to destabilize a fellow competitor
or gain an unfair advantage. The emphasis on winning and the
commercialization of sport largely through the mass media thus pose
a dilemma to the school of though that promotes sports as having
the potential to nurture character-building qualities such as
discipline, honesty and fair play, as well as toleration and peaceful co-
existence. In this dilemma we witness one of the major problem of
development- the pull or lure of riches transcending moral principles.
An emphasis on material wealth, fame and glory promotes an
attitude of winning at all cost.
• Sports as a means of contributing to the moral development of
Caribbean persons, then, is being jeopardize by the increasing
importance of the foreign media in influencing how sport is
portrayed.
 Presence on the world map
• Today sport in the Caribbean is conceived largely as competitive sports
and a means of promoting the Caribbean on the world scene, as a
source of national or regional pride. That pride comes from winning and
from world recognition of Caribbean athletes. It enhances our presence
on the world scene especially at major sporting events such as World
Netball Championship, Olympic games, Commonwealth games, Pan-
American Games, World Cup football, Special Olympics etc.
• All nations want their country to be acknowledged as a presence on the
world scene . Football more than any other sport(even cricket) has the
potential to bring a Caribbean country into the spotlight with the whole
world as an audience. There is then this striving for respect, to be
accepted with world acclaim, overcoming the constraints of small size,
few resources, and a history mired in bondage and oppression.
• For example when Trinidad and Tobago
qualified for the world cup finals in Germany
in 2006. When Brian Lara scores 400 not out in
cricket, or even when Keshon Walcott won the
gold medal in the Olympics.
 Sport tourism
• Sports has contributed to the marketing of the region as a tourist
destination. Region is viewed by people around the world when we host
international competitions such as test matches, world netball
championships, world junior games and when our team visits other
regions, media coverage includes culture of the region. This promotes
sport tourism influencing regional and international visitors to come to
the country earning foreign exchange.
• Sports tourism has shown that it has considerable potential to generate
increase income for the Caribbean countries. The test matches and one
day international in cricket are the best examples in the region of how
sports can draw spectators from different countries and generate income.
Events like the cricket world cup 2007, which are high-profit international
companies , are likely to greatly increase revenue and have prompted
new venues to be built and old ones refurbished.
• Thank You for your time and attention!
Hope this presentation was educational and
helpful to you