“Difficult” for government to fund CBC basketball teams- Minister Norton

A day after President of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) Nigel Hinds expressed hope that the Government of Guyana will offer tangible financial support to their Caribbean Basketball Championships quest, Sport Minister Dr. George Norton revealed the administration is “unable to meet to those needs.”

On Wednesday (June 6), Minister Norton told News Room Sport via telephone, that the government cannot pledge the necessary assistance at the moment.

“The administration has helped sporting fraternities before, especially in the financing of their overseas trips and we will continue to do so. However, at this point in time, it is very difficult to do so and we don’t want that to be interpreted we are in anyway stymieing sport development,” the Minister explained.

The GABF has been in planning for the June 15-30 Championships for quite some time now and will have to make the trip without significant financial support from the government.

On Tuesday (June 5), Hinds, at a press conference, was questioned on the contingency plans in place should they fail to secure help from the government.

“The contingency funding will come from the federation and the goodwill of the corporate community, but we are definitely going to Suriname”, Hinds confidently stated.

However, Hinds believes that due to the magnitude of the competition, the government should provide funding.

“It has been stated clearly and quite explicitly, the government will fund national teams participating in Caribbean championships and there is no reason to believe otherwise”, the GABF head contended.

Apart from sending both the male and female teams to Suriname, and expressing confidence of winning the male title, the GABF is sending a male squad to Barbados for a three-game series; that trip is fully sponsored by the executives.

According to Vice-President Kenrick Thomas, the preparation, trip to Barbados and CBC participation will cost the federation in excess of G$10M.