Education and Sports Minister advances new educational and sports partnerships in the UK.

Antigua and Barbuda’s Education Minister, Daryll Matthew, recently participated in a series of meetings with various educational and sporting institutions in the United Kingdom.

The meetings were organized by the High Commission and aimed to advance opportunities for Antigua and Barbuda following the under-19 cricket team’s inaugural summer tour of the UK.

Minister Matthew and High Commissioner Karen-Mae Hill met with two of the United Kingdom’s most outstanding educational and sporting institutions during the meetings.

At the Harrow School, they met with Johny Marsden, Mathematics Master and Master in Charge of Cricket, and Natalya Silcott, Mathematics Master and Awards Registrar.

The Harrow School has proposed two funded placements for young Antiguan and Barbudan cricketers to spend a term at the school from April to June 2024.

The selected cricketers will be immersed in academic studies while training and playing cricket with the Harrow School Cricket Club.

The second meeting was held with Director of Sport Richard Wheater and Senior Performance Programme Manager at Loughborough University. Loughborough University is ranked in the top 10 of UK universities and is recognized as the best university in the UK for sports.

Minister Matthew explored opportunities for elite athletes from Antigua and Barbuda to secure scholarships to the University.

He also discussed the possibility of developing bespoke training programs initially for football and cricket coaches employed by the Ministry of Sport to further develop their technical capacity.

Meetings were also held with Hertfordshire County Cricket Club (HCCC) and the ACE Programme. These meetings will continue as plans to develop an exchange and capacity building program for players and coaches are discussed.

The ACE program seeks to identify and introduce African and Caribbean players to cricket. An invitation has been extended to the ACE program to tour Antigua and Barbuda in 2025.

In a shift away from sport, the Minister met with the founders of Caribbean Elective, Sergio Fedee and Harry Spear.

Caribbean Elective is a non-profit organization that provides UK college and university students with UK government-funded internship opportunities worldwide.

Antigua and Barbuda will be the second and newest Caribbean country added to the Caribbean Elective program.

Minister Matthew noted that the under-19 cricket tour was not planned as a one-off, box-ticking exercise.

He noted that the tour “was designed to expose our cricket players and administrative staff to playing cricket in different conditions. It was also designed to identify new development partners. In both regards, this first tour was a huge success. The Government looks forward to the second tour in summer 2024”.

The Minister also commended High Commissioner Hill and her office for partnering with his Ministry and for leveraging its diplomatic presence in the UK to foster and develop new opportunities for the people of the country.