THE Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) yesterday brought the local media up to speed on preparations for their August 18-24 International Goodwill series. According to the sports local governing body, Guyanese should brace themselves for some display of basketball never before seen at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
President David Patterson and his deputy Floyd Levi, in disseminating information regarding the staging of the event, were all in high spirits, both stating that the local players both male and female should be ready to face stiff opposition from the visitors.
The teams expected to participate are: Guyana, DC Jammers and the South Carolina All-Stars; all of which will be fielding male and female teams, along with the New York All-Stars.
Patterson said that Antigua, who had signalled their intention to participate and yesterday again indicated their eagerness to do so; are caught up in the problem facing regional carrier LIAT.
Meanwhile, the GABF has named Robert ‘Bobby’ Cadogon and Abdullah ‘Zico’ Hamid as the coaches for the Men’s team, while Mark Agard and Brian Carter will be in charge of the ladies’ team.
But things have not been all bright and beautiful for the local sides, with both teams facing early difficulties for the use of Guyana’s lone premier indoor facility, the Cliff Anderson Hall, but Levi pointed out that due to the intervention of Director of Sport Neil Kumar, they will now be able to work on an uninterrupted schedule until the conclusion of the event.
“The GABF would like to personally thank Mr Kumar. I think it’s important that we do so because, thanks to him, we will now be able to have the teams properly prepared.
Before the recent meeting with Kumar, our teams had to wait and sometimes they would not have access to the Sports Hall, but now we will have them train on time and so on,” Levi said.
The GABF second in command explained that they recently met with Kumar and he was able to arrange things and have the other discipline that would often use the venue to shift their times around and give priority to basketball.

National Team preparation
Of the two local teams, only the women have been getting together under coach Mark Agard on a regular basis while Patterson said that the turnout by the men has been disappointing.
The cry is that the scheduling days for practice were not right given the fact that most of the players would incorporate it with their work hours.
This has left coach Cadogon to call off sessions sometimes and in some cases work with a small number but Patterson is hoping that with the availability of the Sports Hall things will change.
“We really need to get this over with because we want to have team train together.
“We don’t have much time and I know the coaches have a lot of work to do as well, so I just hope that now since we’ll be able to have the proper use of the venue, we will have the team named by next weekend hopefully” the GABF president noted.
Prominent local promotional group Wild Fire Production was named in charge of promotion to help the GABF secure sponsorship for the event.
The group is well known for their management qualities of major events and also promoting some of the biggest concerts in Guyana.
Patterson said that the cost is a substantial amount but they are negotiating with some companies and assured that they will meet their projected target which he is tightlipped about.
“I know we’ll get there and I’m sure that Wild Fire will do a fine job at promoting this event and help us out and so on, so I think this tournament will be one like no other. I know that people will come out and support and be entertained as well,” Patterson said.