With just over three months to go before the start of the Netball World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa, Netball Jamaica (NJ) says it is short in excess of $30 million to send the Sunshine Girls to the championship.

The tournament, set to feature the top 16 netball teams in the world, is to be held from July 28 to August 6.

Simone Forbes, the NJ first vice-president, told the Jamaica Observer that her organisation has been working assiduously to generate the required funds, but she admitted it has been a difficult challenge for the association.

“We are short of approximately $30 million from the $56 million that we need to send the team to Cape Town, South Africa Netball World Cup,” said Forbes.

“At Netball Jamaica, we are looking at a number of things to see how we are going to get this money. I know that we have been speaking to a number of corporate entities and we have been doing some fund-raising ourselves and I am sure that the Government will see how they can provide additional support for us as we continue on this journey to the World Cup.

“We have had Seprod coming on board, but every dollar from this Seprod sponsorship goes towards players stipend and so none of it goes towards the actual World Cup expenses as it relates to airfare or anything like that,” Forbes said.

The Sunshine Girls, who are ranked fourth in the world, will enter this year’s Netball World Cup tournament high on confidence, following their historic silver-medal winning performance at last year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.

Forbes, a former Sunshine Girls captain, said her organisation will be having its World Cup launch in a few days’ time and this will help to boost support for the Sunshine Girls as they seek to win the gold medal for the first time at the championships.

“This is the first time that Netball Jamaica will be taking a big support staff for the players to the championship because they have nine games in 10 days and that is a lot when you play the top teams, so we have to make sure that we give them all the support that we can to make sure they are on the same level playing field with their competitors so it is a really a big year and it requires big money,” she said.

“We still have our fund-raiser, which is Small Change, Big Difference, still going on and we are on all social media platforms and so if you want to support the Sunshine Girls, you can just click on those links and he will be able to make a donation,” Forbes said.