SIXTEEN organisations will vie for the first-ever Inter-Organisation Basketball League title which bounces off this evening at the Burnham basketball court in Georgetown.
The opening game of the planned triple-header that is set for a 17:30hrs tip-off will bring together Son-Sin Barbershop taking on Neal and Massy while the second game sees Bryden and Fernandes face Starr Computer. The final game of the night pits Laparkan against Prittipaul Singh.
$200 000 will be handed to the winners of the event with second and third place cashing in $75 000 and $25 000 respectively.
Vijay Panday of VP Sports Update, whose brainchild the event stems from, yesterday said that it has long been a dream of his to give the working class basketball players something to look forward to outside of the annual Independence inter-Organisation one-day event.
Panday, a former coach of the Beepat Scorpions, was instrumental in the club’s hosting of the annual one-day tournament at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall for the first five years and after parting ways this year, he ran the event under his newly established company that saw Neal and Massy triumph.
The tournament will climax on July 31 with matches on the weekends and according to Panday, the response so far has been overwhelming from the teams who he said were selected based on their outstanding performances over the years from the one-day event.
Apart from Banks DIH under their PowerAde sports drink brand, Neal and Massy Group of Companies is the other major sponsor and yesterday the company’s Sports Club president Stuart May proclaimed their profound happiness in sponsoring the event.
May added that he hopes his company comes out on top in the league just as they did in the one-day tourney earlier this month and it is with this success that they were encouraged to sponsor the tournament.
The tournament will continue tomorrow with three more games that will see National Insurance Scheme (NIS) face the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), Police meet Giftland OfficeMax and Republic Bank oppose Teachers.
On Sunday, Bryden and Fernandes will be in action again, against the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) in the opening game of another triple-header and the Media will face tournament sponsors Banks DIH while Neal and Massy and Police will round off the weekend matches.