THE Guyana Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) will hold emergency meetings with referees following allegations by several teams of poor officiating during the Georgetown Basketball Association’s recent league championship.According to Director of Operations of GABA, Michael Singh, reports and complaints have been registered as to the quality of the officiating at games.
“All of the teams are crying foul, they are looking at the referees as an entity that has no regulation; there will be an emergency meeting where we will meet referees,” according to the Singh.
“We can’t have referees deciding games. A lot of teams in the GABA league were hurt based on the fact that officials made some terrible calls,” he continued.
He noted that with the, National Club Championships: The Road to Mecca III, coming up later this month, the black and white clad officials need to get their calls correctly, adding, that “the officiating sets the tone for quality basketball.”
Singh said that the poor ‘game -calling’ lately has been due partially to lack of fitness on the part of the referees, continuing, “high on the agenda , we are going to be focusing on the referees; if we have to incorporate out-of-country referees, we will be doing that.”
“I know the federation over a period of time, we have been assisting in relation to referees but if we don’t look at them as a single independent arm and inject and assist, the game is going to break down further,” the GABA director noted.
He noted that they will be relying heavily on Mr Sherwin Henry, the only FIBA (International Basketball Federation)-accredited referee to assist in this regard.
Singh noted that for the federation to raise the bar on the game itself the quality of officiating needs to be of the highest standard, commending the referees for a doing a professional job because it was the right call.
The National Club Championships, The Road to Mecca III, is set to begin on March 4 and conclude on March 19 at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.