On Monday this week, Antigua Cruise Port facilitated seventeen students and one teacher from the T. N. Kirnon School aboard AIDAdiva for a fun and educational tour aboard the vessel.

The Grades 4 and 5 students got to dip their hands into one of the ship’s hot tubs, played basketball, enjoyed panoramic views of the city, and met Captain Thomas Mey.

The tour ended with a sumptuous lunch.

AIDA reached out to Antigua Cruise Port about having students tour one of their vessels to forge a closer relationship with the local community.

Captain Mey said, “We don’t want to only come and go but we want to go deeper with your country so that we have a good relationship.”

Antigua Cruise Port general manager, Dona Regis-Prosper, who was also present for the tour said, “It was an honour for us to arrange to have the children come onboard. This field trip has opened their eyes to see more of what happens in the tourism sector. We also believe it’s important for our presence to be positively felt by neighbouring communities, so it was fitting to have students from a school less than 10 minutes away benefit from this opportunity.”

Meanwhile, the children’s chaperone, teacher Olivia Lynch said, “It (the tour) broadened their knowledge to know there’s more out there in the world because most would not have [otherwise] gotten to experience something like this.”

The children gave the trip glowing reviews with many saying excitedly that, “It was the best day ever!”

Jennings United have dropped their first points but regained the lead in the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association’s (ABFA) Second Division League on Wednesday, 1st February.

Jennings United failed to win for the first time in the league and their seven-match winning streak was ended by Lingies CPTSA Wings as both teams fought to a 1-1 draw at the St Johnston’s playing field.

Wings also squandered a good chance to win the encounter by squandering a penalty that was taken twice, in the latter stages of the game.

Wings scored the spot kick on the first attempt, but was ordered by the referee to retake it after one of their players was deemed to have encroached into the 18-yards box at the time the penalty was taken.

Wing failed to score the penalty on the second attempt after the spot kick was saved by Jennings United goalkeeper.

Striker Daryl Massicot, a former Wings player, had scored in the 36th minute to give Jennings United a 1-0 halftime lead. Jaheem Robinson scored an equaliser for Wings with a 48th minute conversion.

The result lifted Jennings United back to the top of the second division on goal difference ahead of nearest rivals Attacking Saints with both teams on 22 points.

But Jennings United have played eight matches, one less than Attacking Saints who are in second place.

Their first draw in eight matches lifted Wings to 11th place with seven points.

ABAYA recorded their second win in seven outings by pulling off a 2-1 victory over Blackburn Palace in the second game of a double header at the ABFA’s Technical Center at Paynters.

Shamar Carr scored the winner for ABAYA by converting a penalty in the 78th minute.  Tarique Gomes had scored an equaliser for Blackburn Palace by also converting a penalty in the 54th minute after Anesto Joseph’s 20th minute conversion had given ABAYA a 1-0 halftime lead.

ABAYA ended the match with 10 men when Jamal Joseph was given a red card after committing his second bookable offence in the 82nd minute.

The win lifted ABAYA into ninth place on goal difference with seven points, the same tally as 10th placed Bethesda and CPTSA Wings. The sixth loss in seven matches has left Blackburn Palace second from bottom of the standings with three points.

Joshua Blenman scored a hat-trick to lead Belmont to their fifth win in nine matches with a 3-0 victory over Real Blizzard in the opening match of the double header.

Blenman scored in the 25th, 41st and 47th minute for Belmont to advance to fifth place with 16 points.

Their third loss in eight matches ensured that Real Blizzard remained in sixth place with 13 points.

National Technical Director Sowerby Gomes said all coaches are given the opportunity to attain a diploma in the coaching education programme being administered by the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association (ABFA).

Thirty-seven coaches, comprising 15 females and 22 males, are currently enrolled in an ABFA B and C-License certification course, which commenced with the first phase at its Technical Center from 26th to 29th January, 2023.

The 37 participants will be given the opportunity to attain their coaching diplomas during the final phase of the ongoing training course, which will take place from 12th to 18th February for the males and the last week in February for the females.

However, Gomes said the participants who are unsuccessful in attaining their coaching diploma at the end of the current course, will be given further opportunities to achieve their licence certification.

“As it relates to either a pass or fail, there is no pass or fail grade when it comes to licensing of coaching. What you will find, after the end of the assessment period where each coach would have completed a number of hours and an evaluation is being done, if we are not seeing where they are supposed to be, there is further development for that particular course,” Gomes said.

“It is not that they have failed, but it’s just that they would like, let’s say, another two or three weeks for development. But after those additional weeks of development, we will do further assessment and give them that passing grade.”

The coaching course is a joint initiative between the national association and sub-regional governing body CONCACAF, the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association of Football.

Gomes said the joint initiative between the national association and CONCACAF is geared towards the continued development of the football coaches in Antigua and Barbuda via the ABFA coaches’ education programme.

Gomes said the coaches’ education programme will help the coaches to have a greater impact on the players, which will produce better results on the field of play.

“The ABFA in collaboration with CONCACAF is very much on the drive of coaches’ education and it’s our educational pathway to see a greater development of our coaches in Antigua because we recognize the more we can impact and empower our coaches, the greater impact we will see on our players on the pitch and get better results,” Gomes said.

“More than just the game itself, we are looking about building the individuals, whereas the coaches are also looking to build and shape their own lives, they are now able to build the young students lives as well.”

President Leon “Kuma” Rodney said the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association is seeking to forge closer working partnership with India’s Fantasy Sports Company, Dream11.

Dream11, a subsidiary of parent company Dream Sports, is an Indian fantasy sports platform that allows users to play fantasy cricket, hockey, football, handball, basketball, volleyball, rugby, futsal, American football and baseball.

It was founded in 2008 and is now owned by Sporta Technologies Pvt Limited with its headquarters in Mumbai, India.

Dream11 partnered with the ABCA during last month’s hosting of its first domestic competition of the year, the ABCA 10 Splash, which was won by Empire Nation and featured 12 local teams.

Dream11 was able to live streamed the ABCA’s 10 Splash matches via the Dream Sports Fan Code App to an online audience during the competition, which was held from Thursday, 5th January to Friday, 20th January.

Speaking on Platinum’s Radio Touchline Sports Show, Rodney said the ABCA is already engaging Dream11 in further discussions to provide even more meaningful sponsorship to the national cricket association during the course of this year’s domestic programme.

Rodney said the ultimate objective of its ongoing partnership with Dream11 is to offer some financial benefits to the teams which participate in the ABCA’s domestic programme.

“It was a good tournament. The tournament was powered by the ABCA and Dream11 out of India so all the streaming was going back to India and could have been seen on Fan Code via Dream11. Different entities would have taken it from Dream11,” Rodney said.

“We are trying to develop a reasonable partnership with Dream11 and I am pretty sure that within the next coming months you may see the Dream11 six-team 10-over aside tournament.

“That is in discussion along with other things that we want to get done. It makes sense and once we continue to develop that partnership, I am sure that clubs will reasonably be happy because there is some sort of a financial gains that they will get from it.”

In April 2019, Dream11 became the first Indian fantasy sport company to become a unicorn. In business, a unicorn is a privately held startup company valued at over US$1 billion.

In November 2021, Dream11 was valued at US$8 billion. In December 2022, Dream11 had 150 million active users in India.

Rodney said the ABCA is grateful to Cricket West Indies Media Officer Dario Barthley for resurrecting discussions with Dream11, which paved the way for the Indian company to provide the national association with its initial support during the recent 10 Splash domestic competition.

“If you follow 10 overs a side cricket in the Caribbean you would have seen a Dream11 tournament in Dominica, St Vincent and so forth. They are the ones that put that on. We were in discussion with them just before the Pandemic, and unfortunately, the pandemic lock down everything.

“With this, our10 overs aside, it’s not their tournament, but thanks to Dario Barthley, who resurrected some discussions with them, they came on board and accept our tournament,” Rodney stated.

“They really don’t like to do these kind of tournaments with so many teams. They prefer a six-team tournament, but they felt it was necessary and important to get involve in Antigua, and they did so and we appreciate it.

“The ABCA will still have to find some money to put in, but I think that they had cushioned the blow a little bit. But all in all, I think the tournament was good. I just want to thank everybody. Once you know that you would have played your part, thank you very much.”

Police seized more than half of a million dollars’ worth of controlled drugs in two separate incidents on Wednesday.

In the first incident, several packages of hashish were washed ashore a beach in Barbuda and handed over to police on the island.

The substance amounted to 77 pounds in weight, with an estimated value of $523,899.

Following that seizure, the police and customs conducted a joint drug operation at the Airport Cargo Shed where they found five packages containing 5 pounds of cannabis.

The controlled substance, which  was concealed inside a cardboard box, carried an estimated value of EC$30,000.

The police are investigating both incidents.

Last week, the Customs Task Force and Police K-9 Unit conducted a joint operation which resulted in the discovery of four vacuum sealed packages that were concealed in a cardboard box at the General Post Office.

The drugs found in this seizure arrived from the United States and had an estimated value of EC$20,000.00.

On 9th January, EC$24,000.00 worth of marijuana was discovered at the FedEx office located at the V. C. Bird International Airport cargo bay in an operation conducted by the Police Narcotics Unit and Customs Enforcement Department.

Days earlier on 6th January, fifty-two vacuum sealed packages of cannabis, weighing 52 pounds, were discovered at the Deep Water Harbour.

Work to install closed circuit television surveillance cameras (CCTV) in schools across the island is progressing smoothly.

This is according to information minister, Melford Nicholas, who provided an update on the issue considering recent security breaches at several public schools.

The installation of CCTV cameras was one of several measures the Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda announced last year to address break-ins and vandalism of public school plants.

At that time, the government said that the work would have begun during the second term of the school year which began in January 2023.

“The work has already begun. The Ministry of Education did indicate that they had come up with a quick and easy solution, and the vendor has presented a quotation which was accepted by the government through the Ministry of Education and the funding has already been approved and so…the rest of it – the whole question of implementation, procurement and installation and commissioning – …the Ministry of Education would have given themselves some time for the implementation and of course, it will be by a school by school basis, so… it will be a phased implementation basis,” Nicholas added.

The minister said he expects that most public schools will have cameras installed and operational by March this year.

Building strong rooms or large safes on school compounds was also proposed as a solution to secure high value items after school hours.

Additional lighting is also to be placed on public school campuses to improve security.

All schools will also be fenced so that access to campuses can be monitored.

With the uptick in violence among young people again at the forefront, the government has recommitted to ensuring that there are structures in place to intervene to catch at risk youth before disruptive, antisocial behaviours take root.

To this end, Minister of Information, Melford Nicholas gave the assurance at Thursday’s post-cabinet press briefing that several options to reach troubled youngsters are being considered as the government is disinclined to rush to incarceration as a first option.

These options being examined include the redevelopment of the Boys Training School to provide holistic services to young boys in need of support and the establishment of a similar facility to serve girls who find themselves in trouble.

Where a lack of parental supervision in the home is at the root of the problem, Nicholas said the government may have to consider stepping in to make neglected children wards of the state.

He added that the government is also open to considering a cadet programme where young people can be introduced to the military in cooperation with the Antigua Barbuda Defence Force. This, he said, would help to instil discipline and structure in the lives of young people.

“In addition…or a part of the whole sum development, some type of structured environment associated with the army where they could be incorporated in the Cadet Corps as part of the whole restructured environment for improving the overall social integration.

“That will be one of the issues on the table for consideration in the wider societal discussion on this particular matter,” said Minister Nicholas.

The country’s director of education has said an urgent review of security at public schools across the country is underway.

This follows the daytime invasion of Clare Hall Secondary School (CHSS) by armed masked men on Tuesday.

Pandemonium broke out at the school after the men entered the school to hunt down and attack a student.

This brought an abrupt end to the school day, leaving students and teachers traumatised.

Director Clare Browne condemned the attack and added that the perpetrators’ actions were “reprehensible, especially in a school setting”.

“When parents send their children to school, they expect that their children are going to be safe. When teachers come to work at schools, their workplace, then they expect to be safe. When cleaners and all the other persons who operate within a school compound come to operate there, they expect to go back home at the end of the workday and they do not expect to be terrorised as they were terrorised [Tuesday], Mr. Browne stated.

The issue of school security is again at the fore as there has been a resurgence of break-ins and vandalism, but the failed attempt by the two men to harm their teenaged  target has driven home the urgency with which education officials must act to safeguard the safety of pupils and teachers.

“We recognise that we need to look again, to rethink the quality of security that is provided for schools,” Director Browne said.

“We need to make sure that persons when they come to work, or they come to learn, that they are able to go back at the end of the day. We need to make sure that parents who are out trying to make a living for themselves have the peace of mind that their children are receiving an education in a safe and healthy learning environment.”

Minister of Education, Sports and Creative Industries Daryll Matthew, Director Browne and a team from the ministry, which included counsellors, visited CHSS on Wednesday to offer support to those who impacted on Tuesday.

The ministry has also committed to making schools safe havens for everyone involved.

“We would have promised the school that the Ministry of Education will do everything within its powers to ensure that we improve the security situation at the Clare Hall Secondary School, and at every other school, primary, secondary in this country,” Director Browne assured.