The high costs of participating in international competitions are a significant burden for Netball Jamaica (NJ), but President Karen Rosen Baugh is undeterred.

NJ is currently facing a daunting $11.5-million deficit as it prepares to send its Under-21 team to the Netball World Youth Cup 2025 in Gibraltar.

The stage is set in Gibraltar, where 20 top teams will converge on two state-of-the-art venues – The Tercentenary Sports Hall and Europa Sports Park – from September 19 to 28. The Europa Sports Park, in particular, boasts modern facilities that were upgraded for the 2019 Island Games.

According to Rosen Baugh, the costs of moving teams around the world for competitions are substantial. But despite these challenges, she said that NJ remains committed to competing at the highest level.

“I don’t think it is just Netball Jamaica, I think it is sports in general. You know, it is expensive to move teams around especially when competitions are on the other side of the world, it is challenging but we know that we compete with the best of the best, so we will just keep pushing and trying,” Rosen Baugh told the Jamaica Observer.

The road to success, she believes, lies in securing long-term sponsorship and building partnerships especially with the Government and private sector.

“The key is just to get more long-term sponsorship so we [are] not in this constant cycle. And, of course, to have as many conversations as we can with government and other funders to say how we can streamline it some more,” Rosen Baugh said.

“But they have been supportive but it’s always a challenge and either you do a little bit or you do a lot and we are always in the mode of wanting to do more for the sport to give the players more opportunities and give fans more opportunities to see [players] as well. It is a cycle that we are not going to get out of. Once you are at global tournaments, once you are national teams, we just have to keep pushing,” the president further said.

Rosen Baugh says she has been working tirelessly to secure funding from corporate Jamaica. Despite the challenges, she remains confident that NJ will be able to find a way to send the team to Gibraltar.

“We are not there yet, but we still need to get over the line, making sure that the young ladies get there in good time so that all their preparation has not been in vain,” she emphasised, highlighting the importance of securing funding to ensure the team’s participation in the tournament.

“So we still want $11.5 million but I am hope soon we will be able to close some of the conversations but until that time, you cannot put pot on fire, so we just have to keep working until we can get that done,” Rosen Baugh added.

One of the challenges NJ faces is the lack of practice matches for the team to get prepare for the World Cup.

“That’s one of the reasons why we have them playing in the Major and Elite League because obviously to have practice matches they will have to travel somewhere or somebody would have to come here. South Africa had taken the opportunity to have their Under-21 team here earlier this year with the senior team for that tour.

“In this region we qualified for the Youth World Cup as well as Trinidad and Barbados and guess everybody is having that same struggle and so you are focusing on preparing and getting the funds together to go to the actual tournament.

“So to raise funds to have series and matchups are very, very challenging and so we try to be creative and try to have the most senior oppositions we can find for them to kind of sharpen their skills and that have worked pretty well. The fact that we do have high quality players here at the senior level would give them a test and give them run. So that’s how we have strategies to manage that. Some of the other countries don’t have that opportunity,” Rosen Baugh ended.