UK Sport and Sport England have been accused of preventing basketball from fulfilling its true potential in Britain

An ‘old boys network’ of Etonians in government and boardrooms full of white people are holding back basketball from becoming a ‘giant’ of a sport in the UK, it is claimed. The allegations against UK Sport and Sport England have been made exclusively to talkSPORT. Basketball has one million weekly participants in the UK and is the most popular team sport among 14-16 year olds after football.

5 The allegations have been made exclusively to talkSPORT

London City Royals’ Director of Basketball Operations, Nhamo Shire said: “Sports like equestrian and rowing don’t have anywhere close to the social impact of basketball. But these elite sports continue to get funded. It gets to the point where you have to ask yourself ‘why is that?’, and if it continues to happen the answer starts to become self-evident.” 52% of people playing basketball are from a BAME background. The sport received no Olympic funding from UK Sport for Tokyo 2020. The 10-member UK Sport board has expertise in sports such as rowing, hockey, tennis and triathlon and includes nobody from a BAME community. A UK Sport spokesperson said: “We would like to invest in every sport but the reality in this Tokyo Cycle is that we have to prioritise within agreed resources to protect and enhance the medal potential within the system.” In the past year UK Sport has given basketball £575,000 to help GB’s senior teams play international matches. Of the 17-member Sport England board and executive committee three are from a BAME background, two of whom have joined in the past 12 months.

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Sport England insists it has invested more than £18m into basketball since 2013. A spokesperson said: “Sport England recognises the significant value of basketball to sport in England, for the enjoyment and benefits it brings the thousands of people that play regularly, and the way it can engage a wide range of people, including young people from diverse and disadvantaged communities.” Mr Shire added: “Those that are choosing the direction of this funding traditionally don’t look like me or come from the same place as I come from. Diversity is a huge issue. I’ve been to parliament and you’re speaking to the old boys network. You’re talking to Etonians.” All-Party Parliamentary Group for Basketball Chair, Alex Sobel MP, agrees. “Whether it’s unconscious or conscious bias, the bias exists. If it’s unconscious bias, they’ve been told a number of times. Officials at DCMS were told. UK Sport were told. Sport England were told. So they should be aware and they should be seeking to address it.”

5 Newcastle Eagles have just opened a state-of-the-art stadium

Some British Basketball League players are coaches of school teams, forging a unique link between the professional game and the local community. This and other schemes have seen the number of children playing at Newcastle Eagles rise from 100 to approximately 2,000 in the last 20 years. The team opened its new 3,000 capacity stadium in January and owner Paul Blake told talkSPORT: “We probably could have sold 6,000 tickets. That goes to show the level of demand this sport has even though its profile compared to the likes of football is relatively low.” The NBA is the world’s most popular basketball league but former GB international Ashley Hamilton said: “In terms of athleticism and highlight plays, the BBL is second to none. If you see the Top 10 every week, it’s spectacular. The talent and the ability has always been there.”

5 Fans in Crystal Palace enjoy London City Royals v Bristol Flyers in February

Nhamo Shire adds: “In basketball you get caught up in the emotion and the atmosphere. Even if you don’t know what’s going on you see really athletic, sometimes artistic, athletes creating magic on the floor. And you leave a basketball game emotionally invested and that’s quite rare.” Mr Shire was behind the Midnight Madness events that saw teenagers play basketball in the middle of the night. It has been described as a “life-transforming” project that raises aspirations of the most hard-to-reach young people. Another scheme, Carry a Basketball not a Blade (CABNAB) saw a 46% reduction in knife-related crimes in the London borough of Newham. These were two of the reasons MPs in 2014 called for an “immediate re-think” of the funding awarded to basketball to “avoid the inadvertent disenfranchising of a whole segment of UK society”. The warning was not heeded.

5 talkSPORT has been told basketball can be a ‘giant’ of a sport in the UK

Alex Sobel MP adds: “Skeleton bobsleigh, shooting and modern pentathlon get far more money than basketball. I don’t know anybody who plays modern pentathlon. I couldn’t name the five sports in it to be frank.” He believes Great Britain has forgotten what sport is all about. “What we’ve done to gain Olympic medals is narrowed on a few elite sports for individuals where less countries participate, rather than looking at mass sports where lots of people participate and lots of young people could go through the funnel. So we need to reassess that and to think more broadly about people’s health and participation in sport.” London City Royals power forward Josh Rogers shares this sentiment. He told talkSPORT: “I had a team-mate in real trouble with the law in Bristol. Through the things he learnt in basketball he is now a qualified electrician, is married, has a kid and lives a very happy life. For me that is the ultimate goal of sport.”

5 After football, basketball is the most popular team sport among 14-16 year olds