By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The Public Relations Officer of the Sierra Leone Scrabble Association, Martin Wusha Conteh has told Politico that they are currently stranded in India. The team is in the Asian country to participate in the Scrabble World Championship.
Conteh said him and his five other colleagues cannot afford to pay their hotel bills or even get three square meal.
He said: “The players registered for the last qualifiers to play so when it came to the main tournament some of them did not have money, so they were sent out. But that is not even the main challenge right now, our main challenge is hotel.”
“Imagine, the (hotel) manager is telling us now that if we don’t pay, we will be kicked out. Even food, we buy food. They buy food in the morning and wait till evening to buy the next meal,” Conteh told Politico from India.
Politico contacted the Ministry of Sports, but the Ministry couldn’t be reached.
Currently, the team needs $2,600 for accommodation and feeding. Part of the money will also be used to pay debts. The scrabble team are expected to be in India until Monday.
Conteh said their performance in the tournament has been affected by their current situation.
“Our performance has been bad because the harassment has affected our players, and this is a mind game,” he said.
Scrabble is among many other emerging sports that is struggling for funding in Sierra Leone.
© 2019 Politico Online
