Ahead of the start of action at this year’s African Men’s Senior Basketball Championship in Luanda, Angola, Rivers Hoopers BC of Port Harcourt captain, Victor Koko Anthony has charged Nigeria’s administrators to motivate the national team’s players with money.
Sports247 reports that the Nigerian team, D’Tigers, will face Madagascar on Wednesday for their first game of the competition, ahead of which Koko believes words of encouragement and mere promises are not enough to spur them towards victory.
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Koko declared emphatically, “We all need money. When talking about motivation, it’s money. Motivation is not mere words and promises. It’s money.
“All players in the national team are men. Some are family men, with wife and children.
“How do you expect them to go back home and tell their families that they have been promised things, but they have not received them? That does not really make sense.”
The Garden City club’s skipper further pointed out that the previous D’Tigers squad were promised a lot of emoluments for the AfroBasket qualifiers, but he alleges that they have not been given everything that was expected.
He recounted ruefully, “The last set of players that went for the qualifiers were promised many things. Up till now, the administrators have not paid those guys; and nobody is saying anything about it.”
He asserted that many national team players fail to give their best for Nigeria because they have been demoralised by past disappointments from the administrators, who he urged to take up a new approach of inspiring the country’s representatives into winning laurels for the nation.
“How do you expect the players to do well if they keep giving them all these kind of promises without keeping them?” Koko concluded rhethotically.
Sports247 reports that the task now ahead of D’Tigers is to put all woes behind them and concentrate on winning the impending championship, so that they would be rewarded afterwards by the federal government – as was done for the Super Falcons and D’Tigress.
After Wednesday’s opening group fixture, D’Tigers will face three-time winners and defending champions, Tunisia, then end their group play versus Cameroon.
