IN exactly two weeks, Guyana’s Men’s National Basketball team will be in action against the Washington DC Jammers along with the South Carolina and New York All-Star teams and according to appointed head coach Robert ‘Bobby’ Cadogan, the players are showing little or no interest in the Goodwill tournament. Speaking with Chronicle Sport yesterday, Cadogan said that apart from the city-based players, there has been little or no response from the players residing in Berbice and Linden.
“Time is not on my side at the moment,” Cadogan exhaled, while mentioning that he would have to work with what is given to him.
At present the former national player-cum-coach pointed out that he has 14 players in training for the August 18-24 event but absent are some key players from out of town, primarily from Linden.
“In the squad of 14, I have three out-of-town players. There’s Randy Richard from Berbice and from Linden I have Orin Rose and Shane Webster.
Also Akeem Kanhai is there but he works in Georgetown so I didn’t count him as out-of-town. But the guys have been in training and we last had practice over the weekend and again we will meet tomorrow from 20:00 h at the sports hall,” said Cadogan.
It’s no secret that Linden and Georgetown possess the majority of the country’s top ballers. Cadogan was tight-lipped about the players from Georgetown. Notable missing players from Linden include point guard Steve Neils Jr whose experience in the back court will certainly be missed and shooting guard Marvin Hartman.
Neils and Hartman, along with the likes of centres Nkossi Gurrick, Jason Alonzo and power forward Quincy Jones, are not among the talented bunch of players hailing from Linden but nevertheless, Cadogan said the show must go on.
Asked if he thinks with some of the country’s top players missing, his chances of winning will be less, Cadogan said, “No, not at all, see, what that makes me do is to dig deeper in the books and it will really show what I’m made of. I have some quality players and while I might have loved to have those players (missing) I think we will be very competitive.”
He added “I don’t know much about the other two teams coming but I know a little about the DC Jammers. They always have good players and always make the players step their game up a bit so, I have commitment from the players in training and that is what I would have to work with, I’m not worried at all”
But Cadogan said that looking on the bright side, the local team could be boosted with the presence of Trinidad and Tobago-based forward Andrew Ifill, who he said has shown some interest in donning the Guyana colours once again.
The last time DC Jammers team visited Guyana was in 2007 when Colonel (Ret’d) Godwin McPherson held a tournament of a similar nature.
McPherson has since passed on and in showing recognition to the former Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Colonel, the present administration headed by Alliance For Change (AFC) Parliamentarian David Patterson has placed the ‘Godwin McPherson’ Lien Trophy up for grabs which will be contested between the DC Jammers and the Guyana teams.