Saint Lucia’s national netball team has stunned local sports fans by withdrawing from the 2027 Netball World Cup Americas Qualifier scheduled to take place next month in Barbados, a decision rooted in persistent funding gaps that sports officials and government leaders say can only be fixed through expanded private sector support. The country’s Youth Development and Sports Minister Kenson Casimir laid out the government’s position during Monday’s pre-Cabinet press briefing, aligning fully with the stance of Netball Saint Lucia, the sport’s local governing body.
In an exclusive conversation with local outlet St Lucia Times, Netball Saint Lucia president Sanya Antoine explained that the federation exhausted all efforts to raise the capital needed for travel and event participation but fell well short of the required target. She issued a public call for stepped-up engagement from Saint Lucia’s business community, a plea that Casimir has publicly backed. Minister Casimir emphasized that securing long-term, reliable sponsorship and financing for any national sport depends on building broader public and private buy-in, a challenge that netball in particular has yet to overcome.
“Right now, our biggest hurdle is getting more leaders from the commercial sector, and even everyday Saint Lucians, to actively invest in and support netball,” Casimir told reporters. “Our moving forward will focus on expanding the commercial footprint of the sport – to put it plainly, we need to make netball more attractive to draw the sustained private investment we need to compete internationally.”
Antoine echoed this framing, noting that private investors expect clear returns when they back a sporting property, and that the federation’s core priority right now is building that marketable product. “If an investor puts money into netball, they need to see what value they gain from that partnership,” she explained. “It is our job to build that valuable product, and that is exactly what we are working to do right now.”
Casimir pushed back against any assumption that the national government can cover the full cost of sending every national team to every international competition, pointing to the 2024 Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games as a recent example of the government’s existing commitment. While the CAC Games were organized by the Saint Lucia Olympic Committee, the government contributed significant funding through the National Lotteries to support the national delegation, which went on to secure a historic bronze medal – a result Casimir said the entire country is proud of.
“Honestly, government simply cannot cover 100 percent of the costs for every team that wants to compete in every international event,” Casimir said. “We would love to be able to give every athlete the chance to compete on the global stage, but we have not been able to establish a steady, consistent revenue stream that allows us to fully fund every national team to the level they need.”
Looking ahead, the minister confirmed that his ministry is ready to partner with national governing bodies for underfunded sports including netball, basketball, and volleyball to help them build more appeal for commercial sponsors. While he promised the government will continue to contribute as much as it can, he repeated that a mixed funding model with substantial private sector support is the only sustainable path forward for growing these sports and supporting international competition. The withdrawal from the 2027 World Cup qualifiers has put a renewed spotlight on the need for systemic change to support niche national sports in Saint Lucia.