‘Let’s support ­­cricket’

The administrative officer of the Ghana Cricket Federation (GCF), Mr Bernard Essuman, has called on corporate Ghana and retired cricketers to support the cricket federation since the Ministry of Sports has refused to fund it.

According to him, the ministry has neglected the cricket federation in their allocation of funds but rather spend all the resources meant for all disciplines on football, a situation which is unfair to the other sporting disciplines.

Mr Essuman told the Daily Graphic in an interview last Friday, that the ministry’s budget allocation should cater for all disciplines in the country.

“The budget allocated to the ministry should cater for all sports. We definitely cannot have the same as football but we should at least have something. We were in Uganda in May and we did not get a dime from the government yet we went in the name of Ghana,” he said.

He revealed that the federation only received annual grants from their mother body, the International Cricket Council (ICC, but he could not recall the last time the federation received any fund from the ministry.

“We have not received a penny in a long while. You should know this; they only support the black stars. I cannot remember the last time we received any money.”

He, therefore, appealed to Corporate Ghana and retired cricketers to support the federation since the ministry always asked for the budget but nothing is given to them.

He further stated that many prominent people in the country had played cricket in the country so they all should come on board to help the cricket federation to achieve their goals.”

There are a lot of prominent people in the country who played cricket. We hope they come on board to help promote the sports,” he told the Daily Graphic.

He also assured fans to have confidence in the National Cricket team since the team was preparing for the African T20 qualifiers as the African Cricket Association was yet to set a date for the qualifiers.

Mr Essuman said though the federation did not have enough money for the preparation they were putting measures in place to get funds for preparation so that the team can qualify to the Afican T20 tournament.

He entreated fans to throng the Achimota Cricket Oval A every weekend to witness the GCA President’s Invitational T20 tournament which was very competitive and thrilling.