The opportunities and challenges of using cricket as a sport-for-development tool in Samoa

This study investigates opportunities and challenges associated with the use of sport – in this case cricket – as a community development tool in Samoa. This Pacific Island nation, like others in the region, has been the focus of various development programmes in the post-colonial era, with developed economy neighbours like Australia and New Zealand providing aid funding. Some of these programmes have involved sport as a development tool, underpinned either by funding from the national government, foreign aid agencies or a combination of both.

This paper aims to explore the use of sport as a community engagement tool by focusing on a cricket-for-
development (CFD) programme in Samoa. The paper examines the activities of relevant sport and government
organisations, and draws upon interviews with local stakeholders involved in the CFD process in Samoa. In
short, the prime purpose of this paper is to identify and interpret – from the perspective of locals – what the CFD
programme has brought to Samoan communities thus far. This is important because, to date, there has been an absence of qualitative inquiry into the efficacy of sport-for-development programmes in Samoa, and very limited research in a Pacific Islands context.