CARICOM intervention must be the start of a wider sports commitment

by Michael Bascombe

The confirmation that Guyana will host the 2027 CARIFTA Games and Barbados the 2028 edition is welcome news. It ends uncertainty and signals that CARICOM leaders are beginning to recognise that regional sport cannot be limited to cricket.

The Heads of Government deserve to be commended for responding quickly after NACAC Athletics appealed for help. But this intervention must be the start of a wider commitment, not an emergency measure to rescue one championship.

Sport needs a permanent seat at the regional discussion table. The Caribbean cannot continue to speak about youth development, public health, education, tourism, and economic opportunity while treating sport as an occasional item, raised only when a crisis develops.

NACAC President Mike Sands said the appeal to CARICOM stressed the urgent need for a host and the wider value of sport to the region’s young people. During Thursday’s media briefing, he did not identify the messenger, but hinted that NACAC had found an emissary. He said one territory had been prepared to host, without giving details.

That naturally raises the question: did Grenada help convince regional leaders that the CARIFTA Games must remain on the calendar?

The timing is difficult to ignore. Against that background, it is fair to ask whether Grenada played a part in bringing the matter to the attention of CARICOM leaders. Having hosted the Games twice in three years, including the 2026 edition at short notice, Grenada understood both their importance and the growing burden placed on smaller host countries.

Although no details have been made public about how the issue reached the CARICOM conference room, the timing and the outcome leave the impression that Grenada may have helped convince regional leaders that the CARIFTA Games must remain firmly on the regional sporting calendar.

CARICOM Heads should now mandate their respective sports ministers to develop a sustainable regional framework with NACAC and other sporting organisations. That discussion should address host rotation, government guarantees, facilities, travel costs, broadcast opportunities, athlete welfare, and long-term financing.

Football, cricket, basketball, boxing, swimming, netball, the Olympic movement, and other regional bodies should also be invited into the conversation. The problems facing CARIFTA are not unique to athletics.

Guyana and Barbados have secured the immediate future of the Games. CARICOM must now help secure the wider future of Caribbean sport.