El James got tossed onto the backbenches.

And the Ministry which he oversaw a couple of years' ago went with him.

Premier Paula Cox revealed some new fancy named portofolios when she announced her Cabinet shake-up on Monday but there was no mention of a Sports Ministry.

That's because for the first time since two-party politics was introduced in this country there isn't one.

Was this an oversight?

Apparently not, sports now goes under the umbrella of the Youth, Families and Community Development Ministry which incorporates Mirrors, the Department of Human Affairs, Community and Cultural Affairs, Child and Family Services, the Department of Financial Assistance, the National Sports Centre quango and, wait fot it, the Department of Youth and Sport.

Minister Glenn Blakeney will be a busy man.

And it would appear he won't have too much time for sport as there is no longer a Sports Ministry.

Hopefully this is not a message of how little our Premier and her colleagues think about a Ministry which in the past has arguably been of more valuable to this country than any other – the exception, of course, being the millions of dollars thrown at cricket and football.

As we've seen in previous years, attempting to juggle three portofolios at once has its pitfalls. It's almost impossible to fully concentrate on all three. And sport certainly requires the focus of just one Minister. That should be made clear by the number of sports that take place on this Island and the number of participants.

Sport has helped integrate the races, it's created national pride and it's taken kids off the wall and onto the playing field.

It's given this tiny country more prominence overseas than any of the muddled tourism campaigns.

It's provided the foundation to host some of the world's major sporting events – two in the last few weeks, the Grand Slam of Golf and sailing's Gold Cup.

And beginning this Sunday, the World Rugby Classic is another that will be televised around the world.

Dozens more of these kind of events have taken place on these shores.

Without sport, the rest of the world would barely know we exist.

Now it's been packaged with little signficance under the watch of Blakeney – he who will go down in history as one of the least inspiring and most ineffective Sports Ministers we've ever had.

As mentioned before in this column, his only notable contributions were to torpedo the annual Sports Awards ceremony and endorse a new swimming pool, the design of which has been condemned by those who will use it most, Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association (BASA).

Now he's put in charge of the strangely named Ministry of Families. That could be a tough one to manage. In a population of little over 60,000, just about everybody has a family and every family has their own problems.

Rather than do away with the Sports Ministry, wouldn't it have been more sensible to let relatively new MP Zane DeSilva get his feet wet with a portfolio which he understands.

Much like previous Ministers James and Randy Horton, and the effervescent Dale Butler – seen by some as the most enthusiastic and hard working Sports Ministers we've had from both the PLP and UPB – DeSilva's familiar of what an efficiently run department can provide.

He was a reasonably talented footballer, a swift road runner and now a low handicap golfer. By mixing with sportsmen and sportswomen he gets a feel of what is required to enhance the various sports.

One never saw that quality with Minister Blakeney.

He's the father of an extremely talented cricketer, but as for his own sporting exploits there doesn't appear much in the archives to show he achieved anything of note.

A good sportsman doesn't always make for an efficient Ministry, but he can sure do better than someone who shows little interest.

Of course, Mrs. Cox's decision does fit into her cost cutting policy.

We'll no longer have to tolerate our Sports Ministers travelling half way across the globe in business class to shake a few hands and return to proclaim how well our athletes have performed.

This Ministerial slap in the face to all of our athletes makes no sense.

Premier Cox may prove to be a brilliant leader but in the eyes of many athletes, she's got off on the wrong foot.

– ADRIAN ROBSON