Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va

Sport Min­is­ter Sham­fa Cud­joe says over $200 mil­lion have been spent over the past five to sev­en years sup­port­ing T&T’s ath­letes and build­ing sports at the com­mu­ni­ty lev­el.

Speak­ing at the open­ing of the $40 mil­lion Ma­haica Sports Com­plex in Point Fortin on Sat­ur­day, Cud­joe said in­fra­struc­tur­al works were on­go­ing in sev­er­al sport­ing fa­cil­i­ties in­clud­ing T&T’s na­tion­al sta­di­ums.

“We are de­liv­er­ing an in­vest­ment in sports. This is more than de­liv­er­ing the sta­di­um, we are com­mit­ted to de­liv­er­ing at the com­mu­ni­ty lev­el as well,” Cud­joe said.

She not­ed that sev­er­al projects have al­ready been com­plet­ed in­clud­ing the Moru­ga Sports Com­plex, Diego Mar­tin Re­gion­al Com­plex, Mal­oney and Mal­abar swim­ming pool as well as the Aranguez Recre­ation­al Com­plex.

“As re­lates to the na­tion­al sta­di­ums, works are con­tin­u­ing at Dwight York Sta­di­um. The Ato Boldon Sta­di­um is a pri­or­i­ty this year as we will be host­ing the 2023 Com­mon­wealth Youth Games,” she re­vealed.

She not­ed that full re­fur­bish­ment will be done at the Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um.

“We are de­vel­op­ing sports and the com­mu­ni­ty. It’s more than de­vel­op­ing in­fra­struc­ture. We want you to train, have foot­ball leagues and pro­vide new ath­letes and tal­ents. This will al­so as­sist in gen­er­at­ing busi­ness and eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty in com­mu­ni­ties,” she said.

Say­ing $200 mil­lion have been de­vot­ed to ath­letes, Cud­joe said: “ We have tak­en a de­lib­er­ate step to in­vest in com­mu­ni­ty groups. It is your re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to de­vel­op pro­grammes and projects which suit the peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty,” she added.

MP for Point Fortin Kennedy Richards, who al­so spoke at the open­ing, said it was im­por­tant to main­tain the Ma­haica Oval which had pro­duced out­stand­ing sports­men and sports­women over the years.

“We will main­tain this great fa­cil­i­ty so that we can con tin­ue to sup­port our men and women and pro­duce count­less greats,” Richards said.

Point Fortin may­or Saleema Mc­Cree Thomas said the Ma­haica Sports Fa­cil­i­ty, pre­vi­ous­ly known as the Ma­haica Oval, had saved many young lives through sports.

“To quote one of our sports­men of yes­ter­year, ‘Many of our lives were saved, be­cause of the oval as sports kept us off the streets,’” she said.

“This will re­main the south­ern mec­ca for sport­ing ac­tiv­i­ties. I be­lieve the Ma­haica Oval spir­it has not died and is wait­ing for the right mo­ment to en­able greater sport­ing glo­ry to re­turn,” Mc­Cree Thomas added.

She al­so said sports had many ben­e­fits.

“It en­cour­ages har­mo­ny and so­cial in­te­gra­tion. It boosts self es­teem and boosts char­ac­ter, and phys­i­cal fit­ness. It boosts sports­man­ship and reg­u­lar ex­er­cise,” she added.

Con­struc­tion of the fa­cil­i­ty start­ed in 2018 by Ude­cott and was ini­tial­ly card­ed to cost $40 mil­lion.