Athletes in Guyana are much closer to witnessing the birth of the country’s first Sport Academy system. This is according to Director of Sport, Steve Ninvalle.
Back in February, out of sport’s $1.5 billion budget, $320 million had allocated for professional athletes and coaches. That was later revealed to be the financing for Guyana’s first-ever Sport Academy.
While subject Minister Charles Ramson Jr had explained the nature of the academy and its purposes, Director Ninvalle gave the most recent update on the structure that would see the entities investing in elite athletes and nurseries for the younger crop.
Director of Sport, Steve Ninvalle
“Also, our Ministry will be having much more consultations with sports disciplines,” Ninvalle shared as he explained how the entities will be able to formulate the most suitable programme.
He added, “As a matter of fact, the Honorable Minister, Charles Ramson Jr, would have started an initiative that would see much more being injected into nurseries and elite sports in Guyana.”
Dropping some hints on what he described as a “structured” programme, the Director of Sport expressed that he expected it to achieve longevity.
“This is something that the Minister will be divulging quite soon, but with the structure that the National Sports Commission and by extension, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports (MoCYS) has for sports now, I personally think sports will be going a very, very far way than it was before.”
“So, in the near future, we’ll be seeing much different ways in which sport is being administrated from the point of view of the MoCYS and the NSC,” he noted.
Still on the topic of consultations with the various sport associations, in sharing another benefit of the meetings, Ninvalle revealed that it was his aim to ensure that Associations did not have to worry about finances in the coming year.
“To date, we have met with almost all the associations – basketball, football, almost every association. And this is not a one-off stop, we keep engaging with them .
“We’ve even started now consulting with associations to find out what are some of the big ticketed items they have for next year, so we can try to see how best it is that we can include that in our budget. So, that next year will be much easier year for them than this year,” the Director of Sport explained.
He concluded, “So, it’s a work in progress and it does not end in 2021. It started in 2021 and will continue right through.”
On Wednesday, the MoCYS, through its social media platform, revealed that Guyanese cricket legend Shivnarine “Tiger” Chanderpaul is already on board and has committed to working with the “soon-to-be-established” Academy.
