BASKETBALL LANDS MINISTERIAL SUMMIT
- Updated: March 2, 2018
British Basketball is to get an audience with the UK Sports Minister Tracey Crouch next week to discuss the sport’s current crisis.
Amid claims the governing body might run out of cash and be forced to put the Great Britain national teams on ice, the lack of funding from UK Sport and other public sources will be up for discussion.
And with £1 million needed to operate annually, British Basketball CEO Lisa Wainwright and the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Basketball, Alex Sobel MP, will both sit down with Crouch – two weeks after a Westminster debate and a concerted pressure campaign.
Wainwright said: “We are pleased that the Minister has called this crucial meeting and we very much hope that sense can prevail and a funding solution can be found to support elite Basketball – both in the immediate and longer term.
“The unique reach and appeal of basketball is becoming increasingly understood and I believe the Minister also sees what our sport can offer.
“Everyone knows that without a funding solution we will have to pull our senior teams from international competition.
“This would be a disaster for our sport and the hundreds of thousands of young people who play basketball. As I have said, I just hope that sense can prevail.â€
Meanwhile MP Sobel, who called the recent debate on basketball at Westminster Hall, added: “After the debate on the future of Basketball where Tracey Crouch committed to finding a way forward and the positive meeting of Parliamentarians with Katherine Grainger; I am delighted that Tracey has now called this summit on the Future of Basketball to find a way forward for the Great Britain teams.”
In an interview with the BBC, Crouch is quoted as having said: “”We need to remember that the people we fund are the most likely to win medals and that’s something that UK Sport has done incredibly successful.
“However, basketball is an incredibly important sport and it does a great deal of social good, it inspires people in very urban communities to participate in sport and its important that they do see a pathway into being able to represent the country.
“And with that in mind I am hosting an emergency summit to try to bring all the parties together so that we can have some sort of solution to the issue around funding.”
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