… Team to depart July 22 for CBC Championships
ANDREW Ifill has undoubtedly become one of Guyana’s most accomplished basketball players and yesterday the 31-year-old declared that he is pumped-up and ready to represent Guyana at the July 23–29 Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championships in the Bahamas.
Guyana will be grouped with defending champions Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, U.S. Virgin Islands and the Turks and Caicos as they make a return to the regional tournament since 2007.
Ifill, who now plays semi-professionally in Trinidad and Tobago with the Royal Extra Lions, was named in the squad of 15, shortlisted by the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF).
Speaking to this publication via telephone from his home on the Twin Island Republic, Ifill said that he’s more than excited to play at the CBC Championships, given the fact that in 2007 when he was set to represent Guyana, he and five other local players were denied U.S. visas to entre Puerto Rico, leaving Guyana to be represented by an all-overseas team.
Apart from Steve Neils Jr, none of the other players ever played at that level. The two were part of the team captained by Lugard Mohan that placed third when the event was hosted in Barbados in 2000, then named ‘The CARICOM Championship’.
In 1998 Ifill was selected to the senior national team while still a junior after his outstanding performance the previous year at the Junior CARICOM in Jamaica. The team had pulled out of the tournament at the last minute and Guyana was not represented in Belize.
The players’ misfortune of not competing against the Caribbean’s best talents in the sport runs deep with Guyana also missing the 2002 (USVI), 2004 (Cuba), 2006 (Jamaica) and 2009 (BVI) CBC Championships.
“Finally our players will have a chance to be exposed to the highest level of competition in the Caribbean and I’m very happy; not only for me, but a lot of the players in Guyana who were playing all these years and not being able to be exposed,” Ifill explained.
He added: “I’m glad that the Federation made this possible, I keep saying that we have the talent but our players just needed the encouragement to play hard. I know it’s not going to be easy, trust me, but I know that our guys will compete”.
With Ifill being the most experienced player on the team, a lot will depend on his expertise to lead Guyana as he did in the many series played against the visiting DC Jammers basketball team over the years, but it’s a challenge the player says that he’s willing to accept.
“I think I’m prepared to live up to anything expected of me. I know for a fact I have very good team mates like Steve (Neils). I have played over here (T&T) with him and we came through the ranks together in Guyana and then we now have Keron (McKenzie). He’s a pure shooter; I played against him last year when he played with DC Jammers plus we have other good players, so I think we’re good,” said Ifill.
Asked what he thinks Guyana’s chances would be against teams who have been more exposed to competition outside of their domain, Ifill explained that only Jamaica would pose a serious threat.
“Honestly, I believe that only Jamaica would give us a tough time. I’m not saying that they would beat us or anything, but they will be a serious threat because they have players playing in the NBA and College and Europe and so on, and as a player I have to respect that, but the players will all step up,” noted the T&T-based player.
Ifill went on: “We can beat Antigua, we can beat USVI, we can take care of Turks and Caicos, honestly, and this is not about me boasting or anything, it’s being real, because I know that our guys will play hard. All they wanted was a chance to showcase their talent with others and I know they will make the best of it. However my concern is playing back-to-back games; that will be very hard.”
Guyana will play their first game against Turks and Caicos on July 24, Jamaica the 25th, USVI July 26 and Antigua and Barbuda the 27th.
The player said that he would’ve been glad to be part of the present training squad but he has professional obligations to fulfil, given the fact that his team is in the play-offs in the T&T National League.
“We will wrap up here latest the 19th and earliest 17th, it depends on the games played but I want to go home and be with the team,” said Ifill.
Meanwhile, president of the GABF, David Patterson, said that Guyana will depart July 22 and will have a stopover in Jamaica the same day before arriving in the Bahamas on July 23 for the opening of the games.