Will Belarusian basketball players’ requests be complied with?

The Belarusian basketball players wrote their open letter more than two week ago. The girls claimed that they would refuse to play in the national team unless their training conditions get better. They also demanded to improve their uniform and to present it in advance so that it would correspond to the weather.

ERB has decided to check how the problem is being solved.

“Nothing is clear at the moment”, - said the senior deputy of the head of the Belarusian Basketball Federation Valery Harelikau to ERB. According to him, the chief manager and the girls have to describe their demands more accurately:

“The letter you have mentioned is not accurate. The head of the Federation has asked the chief manager to formulate all the demands more clearly so that we avoided using general statements… As you can see, there are no certain problems described in the letter. There are some general issues disturbing the sportswomen. We would like everything to be specified”.

The deadline for presenting the requirements is the next meeting of the executive committee that will take place on November 11, noted Mr. Harelikau:

“Although we asked to do it in advance so that we could gather together and react to it, the chief manager has not presented any information to me or to the head of the Federation so far. If we do not get anything tomorrow, I will phone the captain of the national team Natallya Trafimava: maybe she has not received the information so far…”
It turned out that the initiator of the letter, captain Natallya Trafimava was unaware of the fact that accurate demands had to be listed:

“I think the letter makes the things we need clear. They promised to find those who were to blame for it. But we do not need to find the people responsible for “the failure”, we would simply like the requirements listed in the letter to be fulfilled. I do not think there is something impossible about it”.

ERB asked the coach of the women’s team whether he had started making a list of more precise requirements and what would be included in it. The question just made Anatol Buyalski laugh.

Anatol Buyalski: It’s so funny to hear it.
ERB: Why?
Anatol Buyalski: I have been discussing it for five years and nothing has changed. I have to draw up a more accurate list every time.

Mr. Buyalski enumerated the existing problems again:

“We have no home, no gymnasium and no base. We are travelling from one gymnasium to another like tramps – we have to look for someone to allow us to train. We trained in “Minsk-Arena”, “Minsk-2006” and in “Staiki” before the world championship…”

According to the chief manager, everyone is aware of the problems and there is no use making them more accurate. He is going to make a report about the last world championship at the next meeting of the executive committee:

“Lists? Everyone knows everything… I am going to make a report about the world championship at the meeting. What will the executive committee do? Will they build a gymnasium for me? To tell you the truth, I do not know… They keep asking me to repeat the things we have been describing for many years a thousand times. I will make a report about the world championship”.