By Howard Walker, Staff ReporterJAMAICA NETBALL Association (JNA) president Sharon Donaldson has expressed confidence that her association will raise the additional $600,000 it needs to participate at the Caribbean Netball Championships.
The championships is slated to start on July 29 in the twin-island republic of Trinidad and Tobago and Donaldson, in an interview with The Gleaner, stated:
"Absolutely, we are going to the championships. No question about that as we don't owe anybody no money."
It will cost the JNA $1.6 million to send the national team to the tournament and already they have procured more than half that amount, thanks to a donation from the sport's perennial sponsors, Cable & Wireless Limited, which pumped in $1 million recently.
"The other $600,000 we will have to raise. But we have identified the source of the funds already," said Donaldson.
INADEQUATE FUNDING
According to the JNA president, her association does not have the sort of funding required to run its programmes.
"We never have enough money, unless somebody gives us US$20m," said Donaldson, referring to the huge sponsorship the West Indies Cricket Board received from Digicel recently.
"We don't have enough money to run the programmes that we would love to."
Nearly three years ago, the JNA could not afford to send the Sunshine Girls to defend their Caribbean title, sighting the lack of sufficient funds as the reason. But the organisation seems to have become more financially stable after hosting of the World Netball Championship in July last year.
The world's governing body, the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) to which former JNA president Molly Rhone was appointed president during the world championships, lauded Jamaica's efforts and said that unaudited financial reports showed it netted the association its highest ever profit for an international netball event, excluding television rights.
