By Neto Baptiste
President of the Antigua and Barbuda Netball Association (ABNA) Karen Joseph, is making an urgent plea for assistance as the country gets ready to host the ECCB International Netball Series slated to shoot off on September 29.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show, Joseph said the association is still in need of funding towards accommodation and other key aspects of the tournament.
“We are also looking support for some bottle water and we need about 250 cases. We have gotten some sponsorship from Paradiso, we have gotten some from Charlie’s Bottling but we are still far off from [from the target]. We also have a shortage of our accommodation of about $10,000 because everybody had to stay at Jolly Beach including Antigua and Barbuda and we are short of about $10,000, so I am appealing to the public to come on board to support the Wadadli Girls,” she said.
Joseph, a former national goal shoot, however thanked corporate citizen Amer Hourani and Cool & Smooth for coming on board as a sponsor.
“For the past two weeks we have been struggling with certain things where the tournament is concerned and if you realise, the work at YMCA has started but I am not going to even get into that but I just want to call and big up Amer from Cool and Smooth. He was off-island for the past month or so and he had promised to be on board with me but he was off island. Amer called me this morning and sked me, what are you worrying about? Things are taken care of so the trophies, t-shirts, shorts and everything, Amer is fully on board and I just want to big up Amer for easing the burden off of us a little,” she said.
Meanwhile, Chairman of Athletes Development Assistance Review Panel (ADARP), Aldo McCoy, said the netball association did not apply for funding.
“Well, I am asking my sister to apply because clearly, when I checked my records we didn’t get an application from the netball association and if she is in that sort of quandary right now, I would urge her to apply to us so that we can definitely assist. It is really kind of hurt when I heard we are in this kind of dilemma and that should not happen because that’s the reason why the panel was put together,” he said.
Nine teams, including hosts Antigua and Barbuda, will play in the round-robin formatted tournament slated to climax on October 8.
The other teams are defending champions St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, St Kitts & Nevis, Grenada, Dominica, Cayman Islands, and Montserrat.
