GABF’s Graham calls for more support for National men’s team

Mar 19, 2021 Sports

Guyana’s Travis Belgrave lays up against Suriname at CBC 2018.

Kaieteur News – The Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) senior men’s team will make their historic first appearance at the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) World Cup (WC) Americas pre-qualifiers next month in El Salvador but funding remains a perennial bugbear of many sport disciplines in Guyana with Basketball not being exempt.

Alex Graham

During a telephone interview with Kaieteur Sport, Team Manager of the Guyana team that is scheduled to arrive in El Salvador on April 12th; Alex Graham, who also holds the responsibility of organising funding from Corporate Guyana, related that the team are a, “Far way off”, their $15million budget.
Despite already receiving $1million from the State, Graham called for more needed support from the Government of Guyana while petitioning to corporate Guyana. The media specialist related to Kaieteur Sport that he is aware that the COvid-19 pandemic may have had devastating and lingering effects on business but he is still calling on them to lend a helping hand to the team that he is certain will create more history.Graham outlined two key reasons why businesses would want to associate their brand with Guyana’s senior men’s basketball team. First, the team is ranked 100 and has nowhere to go rather than up, which he is very optimistic, being the highest ranked squad in the qualifiers and with three of the four teams going through to the next round, the odds are in Team Guyana’s favour for success.
The second reason for businesses to support according to Graham is to because it will be simply supporting young men from all across Guyana who are making sacrifices to train hard and make the nation proud.
The Team Manager also noted that airfare has taken up almost half of the $15million budget since airfare has been drastically affected during since the covid-19 virus began to ravage the world.
In addition, Graham highlighted that since these are trying times, many things that could’ve been skimmed off skeleton budgets in the past couldn’t be overlooked such as a travelling team doctor.
However, the Manager is certain that his appeal for funding will be met with gracious contributions so that the National Team can continue their upward trajectory.
Guyana will be pitted alongside Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua. The top three teams of the group that will be contested of one-off round-robin matches will move on to the next round of qualification.

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