Fr Ralin De Souza, GBA President told The Goan Everyday that to avoid unnecessary hassles, the SAG has requested them to pay the regular fee as prescribed for sports utility, and once the Association issues are resolved, they would refund the fee due to the Association. And this is precisely what they are doing.
“While in the initial stages the fees for sports were rather steep (1.5 lakh), these have been reduced to Rs 75,000 and as what I'm given to understand, once in 4 years the facility can be made available for 10,000 per day,” Fr Ralin
Basil Sylvester Pinto
Panaji
The State Sports Associations are entitled to concessional fees when they use a
home stadium to host National tournaments. Yet, the Goa Basketball Association (GBA) which has brought the ‘hoop sport’ alive in the State by playing hosts to the ongoing 30th Federation Cup National Basketball Championship for Men and Women at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium, Taleigao Plateau have been shockingly made to cough up an exorbitant fee of Rs 75, 000 per day for the prestigious basketball national“level tourney.
But why have GBA not been granted the discounted fee of Rs 10,000 per day to host a tourney of such a magnitude in the State when the sport (basketball) till date was competitively redundant in Goa?
This writer, searched for answers with Fr Ralin De souza, President Goa Basketball Association. The enterprising Fr Ralin was quick to admit that GBA had been in the doldrums for ages. Though it is registered with SAG it is listed as under dispute. “We have been in discussion with the SAG to sort issues out and they have been of good assistance," he optimistically revealed.
On the astronomical fee they have to shell out, Fr Ralin divulged that there is no official document released of the prices. But he was quick to add that SAG seems to have discussed the issue in their forums to make the infrastructure available at an affordable price. “While in the initial stages the fees for sports were rather steep (1.5 lakh), these have been reduced to Rs 75,000 and as what I'm given to understand, once in 4 years the facility can be made available for 10,000 per day,” he disclosed further.
But without any concrete document in hand, GBA on their part acknowledge that it is difficult to judge on the matter.
As it may be known, another warring faction claiming to be the official basketball association in the State, have not made things any easy for them and as such lot of ambiguities resulting therefrom have to be resolved.
"There have been some issues concerning the Basketball Association, wherein some elements have tried to disrupt the game for decades. We have been trying to sort issues out both amicably and legally,” Fr Ralin stated.
For the time being, the GBA President had to tell The Goan Everyday that to avoid unnecessary hassles, the SAG has requested them to pay the regular fee as prescribed for sports utility, and once the Association issues are resolved, they would refund the fee due to the Association. And this is precisely what they are doing.
“SAG is not the arbitrator, but the Government mechanism is to provide sports infrastructure,” added Fr Ralin while expressing confidence they will do what is best given the circumstances.
Ask him what was the case with the Lusofonia Games held in the State two years ago, for which the infrastructure was built to host basketball among other disciplines, Fr Ralin matter-a-factly had to say that as the international event was organized by the Government itself, the issue of fee did not arise.
Meanwhile efforts to reach Sandip Jacques, Executive Director, SAG to query him apropos the imbroglio was futile.
