West Indies leg-spinner Samuel Badree graduated last week with an Executive Master’s in Sport Management from the University of Trinidad and Tobago.

Badree now joins another active player, Chadwick Walton, who last October earned a Sports Science and Marketing Master’s degree, jointly run by Canada’s University of New Brunswick and the University of West Indies campus at Cave Hill in Barbados.

Badree, who is currently employed by the Ministry of Education as a curriculum officer, Physical Education and Sport, was very pleased to have completed the programme.

“I have always seen both sport and education as vehicles that can be used for upward social mobility, and I have been able to use both to accomplish some of my life’s dreams. I have always advocated the complementary relationship between sport and education, and today I am proud that I have been able to strike a balance between the two.”

Badree, who is currently competing in the Bangladesh Premier League, was unable to attend the Graduation Ceremony held at the UTT O’Meara Campus.

Badree runs a cricket academy that caters for children between the ages of five to 15 in South Trinidad, having completed the Cricket Australia Level 3 Coaching Certificate.

He emphasised that he wanted to show young cricketers that it is also important to focus on their education and that with proper time management, family support and discipline, you can be successful at both. “I treasure this degree just as much as I treasure my two World Cup Championships,” Badree said.

He also took the time to encourage parents to get their children actively involved in sports or some other pursuit where they can learn social and life skills that seem to be lacking in the youth of today.

Additionally, “with all the violence in schools, bullying, crime and drug use”, Badree believes that sport has an integral role to play in reversing what obtains today.

At the Ministry of Education, the Physical Education Unit, of which Badree is a part, is working towards ensuring that all students are exposed to quality physical education programmes in schools.