MINISTER of Sports Anthony Wood took notes, but also took the time to respond to many of the queries raised by members of national sporting federations during a consultation at Sherbourne Conference Centre Wednesday evening.

The marathon session, which lasted for almost four hours, saw members of national federations making submissions to the minister with respect to their various needs.

He said the consultation was an acknowledgement that "sports development is critical to national development" and the input of the federations was needed to help create a passion for sports in Barbados.

However, his emphasis on cricket wasn't well received by most of the audience, and some of them expressed the sentiment that they felt like second and third
class citizens.

"We are a cricketing nation. Even if your dissertation led to cricket. We are aware of that. But when you have almost 60 federations, the time has come when we have to look at it very seriously," said Keith Yearwood, president of the Barbados Cycling Union.

Similarly, sports administrator Kathy Harper-Hall said the more matches cricketers lost, the more money they seemed to get at the expense of other sports.

In between submissions, Wood responded to their queries, but also warned that some of them needed to change the way they did business.

The minister also told sports administrators that the Sports and Arts Endowment Fund was available to provide funds, but in agreement with David Leslie of the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA), he said associations would have to be accountable for the funds they received and the way in which they were used.

Leslie had earlier stated that since the AAA had been in debt to the tune of almost $750 000, care had to be taken that associations were not given funds which would be mismanaged.

Before the meeting ended at 9:20 p.m., Wood also promised there would be similar sessions, as well as periodic reviews by the National Sports Council to see how the development plans were being implemented.

National associations still have until September 29 to make written submissions to the minister. (SAC)