For generations, sport has helped satisfy some of the Caribbean’s deepest desires: pride, prestige, pleasure, passion, patriotism and power. Cricket grounds, sprint tracks and playing fields have become places where national dreams are tested, celebrated and remembered, helping to shape school rivalries, community loyalties, and national mythology.
Dr Roy McCree believes that, for all our passion, the region has been thinking far too narrowly about sport for far too long. The newly appointed Dean of The University of the West Indies’ Faculty of Sport is challenging the region to view sport not simply as a cultural touchstone, but as a serious academic discipline, developmental tool and economic sector.
“In this rampant pre-dinosaur mindset, sport is still seen primarily as a source of identity formation to promote nationalism and regionalism,” he said.
It is a deliberately provocative assessment, but one grounded in a larger argument: that while the Caribbean remains deeply invested in sport, it has yet to fully embrace the systems and industries that now define it globally. As only the second dean since the Faculty’s establishment in 2017, McCree steps into the role at a pivotal moment, not just for the Faculty, but for the wider conversation around sport in the Caribbean.
For the past 36 years, he has researched and published on community sport, sport media, gender and sport, athletic migration, nationalism, governance and sport policy, while also teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the sociology of sport and sport policy. That long view informs how he sees the region’s opportunities and its blind spots.
“I must take this opportunity to thank the outgoing dean, Dr Akshai Mansingh, for taking on the challenging or daunting task of being dean of the first ever Faculty of Sport in the Caribbean, and laying a foundation on which I plan to build as it relates particularly to teaching and research about sport development, as well as sport for development.”
McCree is clear that his appointment is not about changing course so much as expanding ambition.
“I plan to build on this foundation as well as undertake new initiatives to advance the sport developmental agenda in the region through the delivery of programmes in the field of sport studies, empirical research and outreach.”
One of the youngest faculties in The UWI system, the Faculty of Sport remains relatively new by institutional standards, and for some readers, perhaps still not fully understood. Unlike traditional faculties anchored to a single campus, this one was built regionally.
“In relation to its structure, it is important to note that the Faculty of Sport is cross-campus in nature, for it consists of five Academies of Sport spread across the UWI. The Faculty of Sport therefore, is not like the traditional landed faculties which are located on one particular island.”
The academies span Cave Hill, Five Islands, Global Campus, Mona, and St Augustine.
Beyond athlete development, the faculty is concerned with research, teaching, human capital formation and outreach, placing sport within the wider mission of the university. That model did not emerge in a vacuum.
“As conceived by the VC, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, the Faculty of Sport has the twin objectives of bringing these programmes under one umbrella, and encouraging a more professional, systematic and scientific approach to the organisation and development of sport in the Caribbean.”
Globally, sport is no longer confined to athletes, competition and spectatorship. It is a sprawling ecosystem that includes broadcasting, tourism, medicine, psychology, event management, research, fitness, endorsements, manufacturing and policy.
McCree believes the Caribbean has yet to fully grasp the scale of that transformation.
“We have seen a sea change in the commercialisation of sport with the emergence of a global sport industry.”
He noted that estimates cited by the World Economic Forum place the value of the global sport industry at approximately US$2.3 trillion in 2025, with projections suggesting it could grow to US$3.7 trillion by 2030.
Yet in the region, economic thinking has remained comparatively narrow.
“In the context of the Caribbean, however, this notion of a sports industry is very underdeveloped as our economic development is still trapped in traditional conceptions of economy or industry driven by oil, gas, tourism and, to a lesser extent, agriculture. The Faculty can play a role in developing a sport manufacturing sector through training sport engineers, sport product designers and sport entrepreneurs, but this would require iconoclastic change among an entire miseducated generation of policy makers, educators, businessmen, and investors whose notions or conceptions of economy, economic development, athlete and sport are still trapped in 19th century ideas or a PE and coal pot state of mind.”
He sees particular opportunities in sport management, coaching, psychology, policy and medicine.
“As noted earlier, sport tourism together with the sport service sector, particularly sport management, sport medicine, sport coaching, sport psychology, sport policy, offer the greatest opportunities for development in the local and Caribbean sport industry. However, the creation and sustainability of these opportunities would require substantive support from both the state and private sector as well as the sport community.”
His wider point is clear: if the Caribbean wants to benefit from sport economically, it must begin building systems around sport, not simply celebrating outcomes on the field.
One of McCree’s strongest critiques concerns how sporting expertise is understood in the region.
In many Caribbean contexts, lived experience as an athlete is often treated as the principal qualification for leadership or decision-making.
Dr McCree believes that model has limits.
“We can no longer rely solely on participation in sport as the criteria to qualify as an expert on sport and to assume particular leadership roles in its organisation and development.”
He frames that thinking through a familiar regional refrain.
“This century’s old, archaic mindset can be summed up in the popular expression or question: What you know ‘bout sport? You ever play sport?”
Modern sport, he argues, now is greater for its intersects with myriad other disciplines. Passion and lived experience still matter, but they cannot be the only tools on the table.
“While experiential knowledge derived from participating in sport cannot be discounted or dismissed, we need to understand that we can no longer approach sport in the 21st century based on 18th, 19th and even 20th century ideas surrounding its role in society and development.”
It is, fundamentally, a call for professionalisation.
Even as he advocates for systems and structure, Dr McCree is clear-eyed about sport’s enduring social power. Historically, he says, sport has helped shape individual and collective identity throughout the region.
“Sport has had its greatest impact on Caribbean society in the area of identity formation at both an individual and collective level which include character formation, school identity, community identity, regional identity and national identity.”
It has also created mobility.
“Sport has also enabled many persons to pursue university education abroad through the award of scholarships that has facilitated both their personal and professional development.”
Dr McCree also points to sport’s wider developmental potential, particularly in areas linked to health, youth engagement, inclusion and community- building.
“While successive governments have tried to use sport to achieve certain social policy or development objectives, this has been undermined by a lack of co-ordination, planning, and the use of persons not appropriately trained in the field of sport studies.”
The message is consistent: good intentions are not enough. Sport must be approached with the same seriousness as any other developmental sector.
That philosophy found a visible expression when The UWI hosted the return of the UWI Games at the St Augustine Campus. The Games aren’t simply a sporting fixture; for Dr McCree, they represent something much larger.
“When the Games were first introduced, they aimed to underline the regional character of the UWI as part of the process of Caribbean integration as well as to encourage student participation in sport.”
First introduced in 1965, the UWI Games emerged during a defining period of Caribbean nation-building and regional identity formation. While this year’s edition was originally scheduled for St Augustine in 2021, the event was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Games were finally staged to great success in May 2026 under the theme Reunited, Reignited, Ready.
Hosting the event required significant co- ordination.
“Around 14 sub-committees had to be established covering sponsorship, accommodation, food, logistics, uniforms, scheduling, and logistics, to name a few.”
For Dr McCree, the Games are a practical expression of the Faculty’s wider regional mission.
When asked what impact he hopes to leave as Dean, Dr McCree points to programme expansion, stronger outreach, greater research output, deeper scholarship and broader recognition for sport studies across the Caribbean. But beneath those ambitions sits a larger challenge.
The Caribbean already knows how to celebrate sport.
What Dr McCree is asking is whether the region is finally ready to think about sport differently, as an ecosystem, an industry, a discipline and a developmental force worthy of serious investment.
The Caribbean has never lacked passion for sport. The question now is whether it is prepared to build something meaningful and widely beneficial with the same intensity.
