Ding Dong Bats For Sunshine Girls
Dancehall star Ding Dong has called on the powers that be to provide financial support to the Jamaican’s national senior netball team, the Sunshine Girls, who have been representing the country without being paid.
The Sunshine Girls copped the silver in their first Commonwealth Games netball final against Australia in Birmingham, England on Sunday night.
“Super proud of our SUNSHINE RAVERS on winning their first ever silver medal in netball and even tho we didn’t get gold today the world know our name in this field and that’s the greatest gold,” Ding Dong noted on Instagram on Monday.
“Now to the big dawgs in Jamaica give the girls the support they need financially…. we salute u on a job well done…”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg-qdB1uray/
His reference to the netballers as Sunshine Ravers comes in the wake of them dancing to his new song Bounce on the netball court at the Commonwealth Games.
On Sunday, rum company Wray and Nephew announced that they would commit $14 million over the next three years to the national netball program, an announcement which came sometime after goalkeeper Shamera Sterling was seen in an interview pointing out that the netballers had been playing on a voluntary basis and needed the support of corporate Jamaica and the Prime Minister.
However, president of Netball Jamaica, Tricia Robinson, while expressing gratitude for the contribution, had stated that a lot more funds are needed for the squad to reach the $41 million required to prepare for the Netball World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa in 2023.
“We do not have the resources that we need. We are grateful that Wray and Nephew has come on board to support us. We are also grateful to our lead sponsor Beryllium, and we are hoping that more corporate companies come on board because we do need more,” she said.
Jamaica was among the first six netball teams to qualify for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth alongside the host nation England, Australia, world champions New Zealand, South Africa and Malawi.
The Jamaican team is set to tour New Zealand next month in order to prepare for the World Cup which they have their sights set on winning. Wray and Nephew’s $14 million will go towards their gear, local transportation, international travel, and other recurring expenses.
On Sunday, Netball Jamaica, the governing organisation for Netball in Jamaica, shared excerpts of an interview with coach Connie Francis pleading for support for the team, while noting that it was hard to ask the players to stay committed when they were playing without salaries.
“I really hope that corporate Jamaica will, not only corporate Jamaica, our Government will look at what netball is doing for our country and really step in to help us…” Francis, a former national captain had said.
This is not the first time that calls have been made for better support for the Sunshine Girlz.
In 2019, former captain Simone Forbes had called for national senior netballers to be given a monthly salary, ahead of the Netball World Cup in Liverpool, England. She had also posited at the time that if the players were given a monthly salary instead of a weekly stipend, then they would be better able to focus on the game.
Back then there were three tiers of weekly stipend for members of the national senior netball team, ranging from just over $8,000 to $11,500.
Forbes had also argued that every person who represents Jamaica in sports should get paid to play and that the Sunshine Girls had made many sacrifices in order to represent Jamaica and as such were deserving of proper compensation.