Joshua hopes to hit bullseye in mission to popularise former parlour sport

Focused: Joshua Ambrose in action during a dart competition.

PETALING JAYA: Darts is not one of the most popular sports in Malaysia and Joshua Ambrose intends to change this outlook.

Joshua has been working hard to develop the sport in the country through his company Novus Sports and his work earned a positive response from the Youth and Sports Ministry.

“I started playing darts from the age of 13 with my parents at Telekom Malaysia. They used to be active in the game and even organised inter-government services tournaments,” said Joshua.

“And that is when I started to pick up the game. It was casual at first, then I started going for tournaments and also travelled overseas to compete as well.

“And when I played in Singapore and Taiwan in the Asian Qualifiers in 2019, I discovered that technology can also play a role in promoting darts.

“I brought the technology back to Malaysia and organised a couple of events to introduce dart players to the electronic aspect of darts.

“It was very interesting. Everybody thought it will not work. Honestly, younger people started coming and playing instead of the regular darters who are usually between 30 to 60 of age.

“I saw a lot of younger darters from about 20 to 30 involved and I started organising more and more tournaments,” added Joshua, who hopes that the electronic version of the game will soon catch on among the youths.

Especially those who have followed the worldwide success of 17-year-old Luke Littler from England. His exploits and conquests in darts have played a huge role in helping Joshua’s mission to develop the sport in Malaysia.

Littler has won 10 senior Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) titles, and is the reigning Premier League Darts, Grand Slam and World Series Finals champion.

“This year there was more and more progress in darts globally because the 17-year-old Littler from England won the main dart event in the world,” said Joshua.

“He shocked the whole world when he beat everyone. He was on an incredible winning streak. I started going back to find out how this young guy who came from nowhere started winning titles. My research brought me to discover how he developed at a very young age in the United Kingdom.

“There, they had dart training programmes for youths and also had dart academies. I also got to know about wheelchair darts for the disabled.

“I was thinking of bringing that here because in 2023, darts was gazetted as a sport by the Youth and Sports Ministry.”

The 49-year-old Joshua said people did not know that darts was categorised as a sport by the Sports Ministry as it was previously considered a parlour game.

“It seems that development of darts for youth and the disabled was rather lacking in Malaysia.

“Wheelchair darts is not gaining publicity and I hope to change that by popularising the sport with rules and and regulations to abide to.

“The disabled can certainly enjoy a game of darts by following guidelines regardless of whether they are physically disabled or have visual disability.

“Besides that I want to get players from schools and universities to learn the game and develop their skills to enable them to play on the international stage.”

Joshua is also out to build a training centre for darts and come up with a training programme.

“Currently, there is no official training centre for darts. There are only dart clubs with the basic training facility. What I want to build is a regulated training centre,” said Joshua.

“We also need to get accreditation programmes for coaches who can impart their knowledge to others.

“Currently, I’m curating a training programme with a couple of partners and I will work with the Malaysian Darts Association (MDA) to make sure this is an approved programme and we can start approaching schools, universities and get them involved in darts.

“I have spoken to a few coaches who ran this programme in other Asian countries like India, Mongolia and the Philippines.”

Joshua’s goal is to get darts into the Malaysia Games (Sukma) and the SEA Games.

“Hopefully darts can be included in the 2026 Sukma and the Sea Games in 2027. I have to go step by step,” said Joshua.

“I hope to introduce wheelchair darts on a larger scale. If I get the sport into the Para Sukma, that will be great.

“I will go all out to get sponsorships for our top darters and also upgrade their skill level for a more competitive stage.”