The Chief Executive Officer of the Sierra Leone Cricket Association (SLCA), Francis Samura has revealed that their major challenge ahead of the two tournaments, the senior male team, in preparing to compete in March and April this year is sponsorship.
According to Samura, the boys will be playing the North West Africa Cricket Council (NWAC) tournament in March and a week after they will fly to South Africa for the ICC Division 3 tournament which is slated for April.
“But among the two, the NWAC is very expensive and we will be providing all the funding for return air tickets to Nigeria and ‘per diem’ for the players. It is not a tournament that has support from the ICC. It is the responsibility of our association to provide all the needs of the players”.
“The team has been training for over 4 months and as I speak we have not received any sponsorship from government or corporate institutions. All we are doing now is coming directly from our pockets”.
“On a most serious note, we actually need financial support to up keep the players. And the NWAC tournament is important because the players will use it to improve themselves ahead of the ICC Division 3 tournaments”.
“The new set of players will gain proper exposure, experience, improve on their skills and if they perform well in the NWAC they will be motivated to play against the best players in South Africa”.
“That is why we rely on intensive training because we knew that the emphasis on training well is very significant because the technical team cannot just make up one morning and invite players for the tournaments just like that. If we are to succeed training is the only way out and if we fail to train the players cannot execute their techniques well in major competitions, “he noted.
Samura furthered that assembling the national team for long period of time is not easy due to lack of finances to sustain the players, availability of players due to work, studies or other commitment.
He called on the attention of the government, corporate institutions and cricket fanatics to give the team financial, moral and material support as they are desperately in need of sponsorship for both tournaments.
By Bernard Turay
Monday February 01, 2016
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