THE Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) will today make a decision whether Guyana will be represented in the Bahamas for the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championships from July 25 to August 5. GABF president David Patterson when contacted yesterday by Chronicle Sport, said “decisions to be made tomorrow (today)”.
Patterson, since last year, had declared that his Federation’s motive and point of emphasis for basketball is to have Guyana return to the CBC Championships – an event they have missed since 2007.
But when Patterson was asked to say if Guyana will send both a male and female squad, he said “unfortunately, with regard to the proposal for the women, which was supposed to be funded externally, is not looking too encouraging”.
The Alliance For Change (AFC) Member of Parliament (MP), however, did not state if his comment meant that the decision today would be for both sides or just the men.
The GABF would need to pay US$2 000 for both teams plus an affiliation fee of US$200.
Already, GABF has begun their selection process for the males with hosting of the National Club Championships which is at its final stage, being contested between Ravens and Courts Pacesetters.
The talk of Guyana heading back to the CBC tournament has been a familiar one since 2007, among local basketball: Will we play at the CBC Championships?”
But unlike the many times before, the local players are a bit more adamant to make a return to tournament which has seen Guyana producing NBA-like talents.
History would show that Guyana actually initiated the tournament in 1981 which was formerly known as the CARICOM Championships until it was changed to the CBC in 2002.
The inaugural event was hosted in Guyana in 1981, 1988 and 1994 with the Land of Many Waters playing in 11 of the 20 stagings of the now ‘CBC Championships’. The women’s side won the tournament once in 1996 (Trinidad and Tobago) and the men’s team have a highest placing of second in 1994 (Guyana).
In 2007, under the stewardship of the late Col. Godwin McPherson, a male team and a female team participated with an all-overseas-based players core.
The male local players selected for 2007 (Steve Neils Jr, Nkossi Gurrick, Andrew Ifill and Jason Alonzo) were all denied their US Visas to enter Puerto Rico where the Championships was hosted.
Both teams were disqualified for not producing proper documentation to validate that they were all Guyanese.
Based on that backdrop, the Patterson-led GABF said that should the tournament be played in a territory where no visa is needed for entry, they would send a team.