Basketball: Luol Deng asks PM for funding reprieve

By MARTYN ZIEGLER
Published on 29/01/2013 02:51

British basketball’s biggest
superstar Luol Deng has written to Prime Minister David Cameron pleading for UK Sport to restore funding to the sport.

British basketball’s biggest superstar Luol Deng has written to Prime Minister David Cameron pleading for UK Sport to restore funding to the sport.

The sport discovered last month it will receive zero funding in the run-up to the Rio 2016 Olympics – a cut of £8.5 million compared with London 2012.

British Basketball will meet funding quango UK Sport tomorrow to ask for it to reconsider, and has attracted top-level support from Deng, who plays for the Chicago Bulls in the NBA.

His letter to the Prime Minister states: “We all heard about the ‘legacy’ that London 2012 was going to bring to sport in the UK and I refuse to sit back and let that legacy be completely demolished for basketball. I, along with other people involved in the game, have put too much in and care too greatly to let this happen.”

Deng, 27, played for GB’s basketball team in the London Olympics. He was born in Sudan, became a British citizen in 2006 and went to school in Croydon.

British Basketball is also considering a formal appeal to the Sport Dispute Resolution Panel.

Stephen Mosley, MP for Chester, has secured an adjournment debate in Parliament on funding for basketball, which was due to take place last night.