00:00Former Trinidad and Tobago tennis player Shane Stone has been heavily involved in the sport
00:05of paddle tennis, better known as paddle. Stone is a medical doctor based in both his
00:10land of birth, TNT, and other home, the USA. He has played an instrumental role in organizing
00:15a Caribbean versus USA paddle tournament, which takes place in St. Martin.
00:19Yeah, so I've enjoyed getting to be part of the team that organized the USA versus Caribbean
00:24paddle challenge. We've never really had a Caribbean team in paddle before, and so
00:29for me being able to be the captain of the team this year, and it's an all-round one,
00:33has made this a really exciting event for me. We have the main match, it's going to be on
00:38Saturday, July 6th at the St. Martin Paddle Club, and we're going to have a pro-am and an
00:44exhibition the day before, and this really is going to start gaining more exposure to the sport
00:48of paddle, not just in the island of St. Martin, but throughout the Caribbean.
00:51Stone has had the experience of playing paddle with the US national team, which gave him a head
00:56start in coming up with this initiative. According to him, this is a step in the right direction for
01:01the Caribbean. So, you know, obviously getting a new sport to the exposure that you want is very,
01:07very difficult, especially when it's made up of a lot of different islands and you're trying to
01:12get it built in different places. You know, I think just getting more players who are playing
01:17other sports like tennis and squash and badminton, etc., to become part of just a bigger racket
01:22sport community is big. You know, I know a lot of tennis players resist a lot of new racket
01:27sports around the market, but truthfully, whether we like it or not, all of these sports are here
01:31to stay. You know, during COVID, there were more paddle players in Spain than tennis players,
01:36which kind of gives a testament to the quick growth of the sport. Several Caribbean islands
01:41have paddle courts, excluding Trinidad and Tobago. It means whenever Stone returns home,
01:46he practices on a regular tennis court. Being from the Twin Island country,
01:50Stone is hoping to change that in time to come. Yeah, so a lot of islands in the Caribbean have
01:54now put down some paddle courts. You know, obviously, St. Martin has some,
01:57Bahamas has some fantastic facilities, Curacao, Martinique, Barbados, Santo Domingo in the
02:04Dominican Republic all have paddle courts. We don't have any in Trinidad as yet. My hope is
02:08that within the next couple of years, as we start developing a Caribbean paddle championships,
02:13we're kind of pushed into a space where whether it's something that is publicly funded or
02:17privately funded, that this just gives racket sport enthusiasts just another sport that they
02:22can become part of. Stone is encouraging people to keep an open mind to paddle,
02:26even if they are involved in other racket sports. Vinod Narwani, TV6 Sport.
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