GUYANA’s senior men’s national team has been drawn in Group A of the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championships, which will be played in Paramaribo, Suriname, from June 25 – 29.

The tournament next year will serve as a qualifier to FIBA’s AmeriCup. The drawing took place in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Wednesday, and will see Guyana being grouped with long-time rivals and host Suriname, along with Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Meanwhile, Group B will bring together Haiti, Bermuda, Montserrat, Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda.

Nigel Hinds, president of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) said he’s committed to sending a male and a female team to the championship, since “it is consistent to what we’ve (the GABF) been doing over the past four years.”

Guyana has featured at every tournament under Hinds’ tenure at the helm of the GABF, with their best finish being fifth place in 2015, behind former Indiana Pacers and Dallas Mavericks shooting guard, Rawle Marshall.

“What we will try to do is bring in, as much as possible, players, those born in Guyana and living overseas. We have some people helping us to identify some players. We know of the James brothers, there are four of them; they’ve played a lot of basketball in Europe,” Hinds said.

According to the GABF boss, he’s projecting that the teams–both male and female–should start assembling at least by March, adding “Suriname is close by and we would really love to medal at this championship. So, right now, we’re working on identifying Guyanese who would’ve played College and semi-professional.”

Guyana had a horrid showing at the last CBC tournament, held in the British Virgin Islands, 2015, finishing last in the 10-team tournament, where they failed to pick-up a win.