World Youth Championships a priority this year, says JNA boss
DESPITE the harsh financial climate, the Jamaica Netball Association (JNA) is “focused” on ensuring that the National Under-21 squad is able to participate in the 2013 World Youth Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
Marva Bernard, the head of the local body, told the Jamaica Observer’s Monday Exchange forum that with a shortfall in the current budget, the JNA will be cutting back on programmes to facilitate the development of the young Sunshine Girls.
“One of the concerns we have is that we must send this team to Glasgow, so we have had to cut back on some of the programmes that we are doing and we are focussed on getting the team prepared,” she said Monday at the newspaper’s offices.
“It is the year of the World Championships, albeit it is the World Youth Championships. There is a bigger (financial) strain every time there is a World Championships. We have to prepare the team, and preparation gets intense in the year of the tournament,” Bernard added.
The Under-21 team won bronze medal at the last Youth Netball Championships.
Bernard revealed that the cash-challenged association has already paid approximately $3m of the roughly $8m required to secure the national team’s participation at the Championships.
“A significant portion of the participation cost has been paid… (and there is) approximately $5m left to cover the airfare and additional costs around getting them there.
“It is expensive… it is extremely expensive to take part in these world tournaments, but we cannot not go,” she said, while pointing out that respective bodies bear the brunt of the expenses at these tournaments.
While lamenting the difficulty in getting corporate partners to invest in the various programmes of the JNA, the netball president said her association is “not daunted”.
“A lot of times companies do not provide sponsorship, but we are not daunted by (hearing) no (to the requests). We know that this country loves winners. They don’t consider that we have come third at a World Champs for youths last year, but sometimes they don’t realise that it takes cash to care,” she pleaded.
