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Amazon Warriors receive no financial support from Govt.- VP Jagdeo
Kaieteur News – The Government of Guyana has not given any financial support to the Amazon Warriors cricket team, Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo said in response to a question posed by Kaieteur News.
Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo
Jagdeo was asked: “Mr. Vice President, can you say whether the Government of Guyana has pumped monies directly or indirectly into the Amazon Warriors franchise and if so can you give an estimated amount?”
The Vice President made it clear that the Amazon Warriors team that plays in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) has not received any financial support from his government.
“There is no financial transfer from the treasury to the Amazon Warriors that I know of. We don’t have a budgetary provision for it, and there has been no financial transfer to the Amazon Warriors from the budget,” Jagdeo said on Thursday.
In contrast, Guyana’s CARICOM sister Jamaica has been pouring financial resources into its team the Jamaica Tallawahs which represents the country yearly at the CPL. Jamaica’s Minister of Sport Olivia Grange had responded to critics in an article SportsMax published earlier this month, insisting that her ministry did it’s best to support the team.
On Thursday in a statement issued after widespread condemnation of the Jamaican Government’s lack of support for the team that resulted in the owner Kris Persaud moving the CPL Twenty20 franchise from Jamaica to Antigua and Barbuda, Minister Grange said that “the ministry provided special support to the Tallawahs at the level that funds would permit, as they forwarded cash, and paid for coordinated services across the Government of Jamaica to facilitate the franchise.”
Grange added that her ministry’s Sports Division and the Sports Development Foundation provided direct cash payments of J$13 million to the Jamaica Tallawahs, including the purchase of tickets for matches, between 2015 and 2019.
The minister said the government incurred significant direct costs as it worked to facilitate the Tallawahs, as she revealed that the Sports Development Foundation undertook the cost for the importation of goods and equipment needed for use during cricket matches.
“We did our best to give support to the Tallawahs. The Tallawahs bear our country’s name, but are not a national team, and are therefore not covered in the yearly allocations to the Jamaica Cricket Association. However, we have sought to provide special support to the Tallawahs at the level that our funds will permit,” the minister said in her statement.
Grange explained that it was difficult for the Government to go beyond its reach, citing that the Sports Development Foundation provided J$263 million in grants to all national sports federations in 2023.
“It is estimated that the Tallawahs require US$1 million each year—or more than J$150 million; but in order to give them more, we would have to cut funding to the more than 40 National Sports Federations, such as football, netball, track and field, who depend on government to run their programmes and have been requesting additional sums — which we are challenged to provide,” she noted.
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