Football heroes Shaun Goater and Clyde Best are living examples of the potential Bermuda?s young people have to make a name for themselves in the international sporting world and find a route to educational and career opportunities beyond the Island?s shores.

But the country is failing to nurture young people?s sporting talents in a structured way and the time has come for a national sporting agenda to be developed, says Shadow Sports Minister Jon Brunson.

While $11m has been invested in the national cricket team, which plays in next year?s Cricket World Cup, other sports that attract wider grass-roots participation are struggling, he said.

And he is doing more than merely speaking out, he has set up two $500 scholarships ? one for academic excellence and one for excellence in athletics ? that will be awarded in each of the next three years at CedarBridge Academy.

But beyond his own personal endeavour he wants to see a national effort to nurture and develop young sporting talents.

?We need to look at track and field, football, sailing, swimming. Those are amongst the sports that we need to focus. There are so many of our young people who are missing out on opportunities,? he said.

?Shaun Goater is the epitome of success for a young, black male. He came from a single parent family with humble needs. His mother and family raised and reared him into this guy who was able to explode out of his circumstances.

?He went to the UK in 1989 and through his career he became huge, going on to play for Manchester City earning a great salary and becoming well known. He is very humble about what he has achieved but he needs to be heralded as a hero,? said Mr. Brunson.

The Football World Cup has got millions of viewers across the globe tuning in to see the exploits of nations such as Trinidad and Tobago, Angola and Ghana, said the MP adding: ?Some of these countries are almost destitute but they are taking part in the World Cup. How much more diversity do you want??

While not criticising Bermuda?s investment in cricket, Mr. Brunson points out the global appeal of football and other major televised sports far out-reach the appeal of cricket, and as such careers and opportunities to win overseas educational scholarships on the strength of sporting prowess are much greater.

He says Bermuda should encourage and develop youngsters in popular sports that will likely lead to them being offered college and university scholarships in Europe and North America for those who show promise.

?The Bermuda Football Association has a huge opportunity. We have to look at how we invest in our sports. We need to re-think our focus and our position and invest in sports that will create global opportunities,? he said.

?Baseball and basketball are played around the world. Basketball has made a huge transition. Softball is big in North America but we tend to focus on netball. There is no infrastructure for our young people to succeed through sports.

?Let?s think how we can create opportunities for our young Bermudians, especially those that are not necessarily academically inclined.?

In track and field, Bermuda has enjoyed sporadic success, including high jumper Clarance (Nicky) Saunders? 1990 Commonwealth Games Gold.

Mr. Brunson said: ?We have athletes but can only develop so far because of the level of (training) standards we have here. Yes, the athletes also need to be committed, but there has to be the infrastructure.?

He said he knew of instances where parents of talent sporting youngsters were making big sacrifices to find ways of getting their youngsters into training facilities and places where they could continue to improve.

?Tell me of 10 athletes who have had sports scholarships on this Island? There are many families out there who have kids with potential but they do not have the means.?

Asked what might be done to improve the situation, the Shadow Sports Minister said: ?I?d look to redesign the sports? infrastructure. We are giving $1.2m in grants to national sports bodies but that is nothing. Around 50 percent of that is going to football and cricket and the rest is divvied out to the others.

?If it is Olympic year we have swimmers, track athletes, footballers, golfers and triathletes who are wanting to go. That is a big year for all the governing bodies and they all have to try and raise money from the same corporate pool.?

What needs to happen is for Government funding to be sensibly shared with a sporting endowment fund set up that, after a few years, should generate yearly sporting funding through its profit/interest. Another advantage of an endowment fund is it would allow donations to go into one general pool for all sports.?

Mr. Brunson added: ?It might not work but let?s have a look at it. The other thing we need to do is hold the sporting bodies accountable. If we are going to give them funding they are going to have to show the results. There needs to be benchmarks and criteria. At the moment the Minister does not have that.?