The Min­istry of Sport and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment an­nounced via me­dia re­lease on Sun­day that on Sep­tem­ber 26, 2024, Cab­i­net ap­proved the reap­point­ment of Dr Bar­ry An­tho­ny Ish­mael (Chair­man) and Board mem­bers Dr Rochelle Mo­hammed, Ter­ry Young, Christophe A Brath­waite, and Kwanieze John to serve on the Board of Di­rec­tors of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Box­ing Board of Con­trol for a fur­ther pe­ri­od of two years.

The cur­rent term of the Board ex­pires on Oc­to­ber 5 and the new two-year term will be­gin on Oc­to­ber 6.

Min­is­ter Cud­joe-Lewis stat­ed that she has ob­served with deep dis­ap­point­ment the in­ac­cu­rate and mis­lead­ing state­ments by the cur­rent board re­gard­ing its de­ci­sion to not sanc­tion a Cos­mic Box­ing card for a Pro-Am card con­test on Oc­to­ber 5, as re­port­ed in the me­dia on Fri­day.

The Min­is­ter has ad­vised that the board, in its cur­rent term, has full au­thor­i­ty to ap­prove cards up un­til Oc­to­ber 5, 2024. It is in this light that the board was in­struct­ed to re­vis­it and re­con­sid­er its de­ci­sion. 

The mem­bers of the cur­rent board will re­ceive their in­stru­ments of ap­point­ment for the new term to­mor­row. 

Mean­while, Ce­cil Forde, the pres­i­dent of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Box­ing As­so­ci­a­tion (TT­BA), had ex­pressed con­cerns that the as­pi­ra­tions of hav­ing pro­fes­sion­al box­ing will en­hance the ca­pa­bil­i­ty of the lo­cal box­ers so that they can com­pete in­ter­na­tion­al­ly. 

Forde, the long-stand­ing box­ing ad­min­is­tra­tor who has been mak­ing way for new lead­er­ship, al­so wants Min­is­ter Cud­joe-Lewis and her min­istry to look se­ri­ous­ly in­to the state of an­ti­qua­tion of the Box­ing Board Act, which he said ham­pers the growth of the sport in this mod­ern era.

He is al­so call­ing on the Min­is­ter to se­ri­ous­ly look at the com­po­si­tion of per­sons ap­point­ed to serve on the board.

Forde said the sport had grown past the rules, by-laws, and statutes of the 1933 Box­ing Act, which were ob­so­lete.

“As such, we need pro­fes­sion­al/qual­i­fied peo­ple with knowl­edge of the sport to take it for­ward and amend the act ur­gent­ly.

“This is need­ed at the board lev­el and the staff.

“The present board has been in place for the past eight years, yet it can­not show any kind of de­vel­op­ment or strate­gic plan­ning; the most dis­gust­ing ex­cuse of be­ing a reg­u­la­to­ry body holy and sole­ly is not true,” Forde said.