Local squad to begin preparation today
GUYANA’S male and female national units are in for a busy summer, as president of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) David Patterson yesterday informed Chronicle Sport that from August 18 to 25, they will be hosting an International Goodwill Tournament. The Cliff Anderson Sports Hall will be the venue for the tournament which will feature male and female teams from the North Carolina, Washington DC and New York areas.
“We have coach Larry Davis coming back with his female team that he had brought last year and he will be bringing a male unit as well this time. Also the DC Jammers will be coming back after a break, and also a female team is expected from the DC area. That team will have Mickey Burnett and then coach Bernard Daniels will have a team coming from New York,” Patterson said.
It was rumoured that a male team would have been coming out of Antigua as well as from neighbouring Suriname, but Patterson said that “it’s not yet confirmed about these two other teams because we’re still finalising and working certain things out, but yea, we expect two teams coming from those two countries but I don’t want to give my mouth liberty at this time.”
Patterson, who was voted to the helm of the sport when the Federation held its annual general meeting earlier this year, has since then been pushing for the resuscitation of Guyana’s National male basketball team who have been out of international action for quite some time.
The Alliance for Change (AFC) Parliamentarian Patterson disclosed that the local team under a panel of coaches will begin their work at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
“We have not named a coach as yet but Bobby Cadogan, Abdullah Hamid and those guys will be there today. I can’t say who are the players called in for training because I think the guys had done some work in terms of scouting players for possible selection, so let’s see, but this is definitely going to happen next month,” an elated Patterson said.
Meanwhile, Cadogan, contacted yesterday, revealed that today a number of players will be under scrutiny at Guyana’s premier indoor sports facility where he, along with other coaches, will put the team together.
From 09:00 h to 13:00 h the coaches will be looking at players, some of whom have already been identified but they want to look at a few others.
Looking ahead, Patterson said that the logistics for the tournament have already been ironed out but when asked who are some of the sponsors of the series, he said, “I don’t want to let anything out right now, but I can tell you that we have been getting some positive returns from the corporate community and by next week we’ll be able to put everything to the table at a press conference, but I don’t want to undermine any of the work the executives are doing right now,” the president said.
The GABF boss also mentioned that “during the series, the DC Jammers and Guyana will play for the Godwin McPherson Memorial trophy. Now only these two teams will clash for this trophy and the reason is because this is something ‘Mac’ would have loved to see happening right now. All this was his dream. We’re just materialising and adding some touches too and I know he would have been proud.”