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BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS — April 23, 2025 — The damning evidence of Minister of Sports Samal Duggins’ catastrophic failure in sports development continues to pile up—this time, with TENNIS taking the brutal hit. Once again, talented youth are the collateral damage of a government that talks big but delivers little.

There is not a single functioning tennis facility on the entire island of St. Kitts. Let that sink in. Not one. The government-owned and managed courts have been left to rot in shameful disrepair, and the images circulating across social media are irrefutable proof of the deterioration—cracked surfaces, broken fences, no lighting, no seating, no future.

With zero action from the Ministry of Sports, young tennis talents are left with no choice but to journey to Nevis every weekend to practice at the Four Seasons Resort—a luxury only wealthy families can afford. Meanwhile, the sons and daughters of the average struggling Kittitian family are robbed of their dreams and locked out of the sport they love.

“We have players with real potential,” said one frustrated parent. “But if you can’t afford to send your child to Nevis, they’re done. That’s not sports development. That’s sports discrimination.”

The glaring inequality and neglect has ignited outrage within the tennis fraternity, with many calling on Minister Duggins to resign or take immediate action. But tennis isn’t the only sport suffering. It’s just the latest casualty in a national crisis of collapsing sports infrastructure:

The Kim Collins Athletic Stadium remains locked in a multi-year “renovation” that has gone nowhere.

Basketball City? A promised facelift that never got off the ground.

St. Kitts stands alone as the ONLY OECS nation without a functioning track and field stadium—a damning stain on the country’s athletic future.

Yet ironically, Minister Duggins is expected to be front and center at RLB Airport today, flashing smiles as he welcomes home Carifta athletes, some of whom miraculously medaled despite having no access to proper training grounds.

“This is hypocrisy at its finest,” one coach fumed. “How can you take photo ops with athletes you’ve abandoned?”

The people are fed up. The athletes deserve more. And the tennis community is loudly demanding that Minister Duggins finally break his silence, step up, and deliver the resources and renovations they’ve been denied for far too long.

The game, Minister, is not only set—it’s match point. And the people are watching.