GUYANA’s top basketball teams will be vying for an ultimate prize money $800, 000, when they clash next month at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in the “Road to Mecca” basketball tournament, which was officially launched by the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) on Friday evening at the Duke Lodge in Kingston. An initiative of GABF’s newly installed executives, headed by President Nigel Hinds, the event is touted to be the starting point of the new executive plans toward rejuvenating the sport of the basketball in Guyana.
According to Hinds, who took over the Federation’s presidency last month, the event will be all about getting back the fans and reigniting their excitement and support for the sport.
“It’s not really about raising funds, it’s about resuscitation, revitalisation, breathing life back into the sport. We want the fans back,”Hinds related.
Beginning March 1, the competition will extend up to March 23, with competition also on March 2, 9 and 16, all at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall on Homestretch Avenue.
The event will feature matches between the top 16 clubs in Guyana, comprising the top five teams from each of the three sub-associations – Georgetown, Linden and Berbice, and a sixteenth team that will have to earn their way into the competition through a wild card playoff.
The top five teams coming out of Georgetown are the Trinity Grid Holdings Pacesetters, Colts, Pepsi Sonics, Ravens and the Nets. From Berbice the five teams are the Knights, Smyth Field Rockers, New Amsterdam Warriors, Fyrish Sharks and Rose Hall Town; while for Linden the teams are the Kings, Jets, Royals, Raiders and Bulls.
The teams will be playing in a knockout format, and the team to place second in the competition will walk away with $200, 000, while the third place team will become $50, 000 richer.
Hinds said that the Federation will be doing some fierce advertising to ensure that they get the word out there to build up the appropriate hype among the fans
.The GABF boss said that given the upcoming February 23 Mashramani celebrations, only minor advertising will be done between now and February 24, however things will pick up from that point until the beginning of the tournament.
Also presiding over the launch was GABF Vice-President, Michael Singh, and Technical Director, Cecil Chin. The event was attended by other basketball stakeholders, who engaged the executives in a question and answer segment where they were able to voice their concerns.
One particular concern was the uniformity of the teams, where it was pointed out that for the teams to participate each player must be adorned in matching uniforms and their numbers must be displayed on their vest.
The issue of different teams ending up with the same colour of uniform was also addressed and Hinds noted that he will look into the matter to ensure that no two teams show up with the same colour of uniform.
Written By Tamica Garnett