THE Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) recently held its 2015 Congress in Bridgetown, Barbados which was attended by the president of world governing body FIFA, Horacio Muratore. FIBA in the Americas President Usie Richards and Regional Director Alberto Garcia, along with CONCENCABA President Ruperto Herrera also joined 18 of the 23 CBC Member Federations on the Island – Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, and the US Virgin Islands.

The FIBA boss, who hails from Argentina, revealed it was necessary for him to attend the CBC Congress in light of FIBA’s recent policy shift away from interacting with countries through the zone boards.
“I think this is the time for the national federations because we want to come closer to them, so we changed the system of governance to strengthen the national federations, help them in their development to put them in a better position to equip their players for the 2019 World Cup,” said Muratore
The 2015 CBC Congress was presided over by CBC President Glyne Clarke who laid the foundation for this year’s activities to include competitions, clinics for coaches and referees, and developments in FIBA and FIBA in the Americas.
Clarke expressed his gratitude to all who were in attendance, and more importantly for having the presence of FIBA’s president who also updated the membership on the New Governance ONE FIBA and the National Federations Development Plan.
The membership was updated on the amended CBC Championship Hosting Requirements to include the LOC’s responsibility for assuring adequate security, public liability insurance, emergency medical services, referees viaticum increase and the increase of the number of neutral referees.
Vice-President on Programmes and Development Marland Nattie and Board Member Victor ‘Voot’ O’Garro presented the Development and Mini Basketball Plans to be executed within the Caribbean.
Patrick Haynes, Vice-President of Finance and Marketing, updated the membership on the current development and marketing strategies for the 2015 CBC Senior Men’s and Women’s Championships which will be held June 9-20 in Tortola, British Virgin Islands.
Updates included the official Marketing and Media guide, sponsorship packages and the upcoming release of the championship website.
FIBA and FIBA in the Americas executives outlined their expectations for the CBC sub-sub-zone and their plans to assist the CBC members in adopting the new ONE FIBA governance.