– GABF picks up CBC Award for Excellence

PRESIDENT of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF), Nigel Hinds confirmed that Guyana has registered both its male and female national teams for participation at this year’s Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) senior championships in Paramaribo, Suriname.

The women’s competition will be played from June 15 – 22, while the men’s tournament is scheduled for June 22 – July 1.

“We are on track to participate, Noble House Seafoods Limited contributed generously to ensure our fees are paid for participation of Guyana’s Men’s and Women’s teams,” Hinds told Chronicle Sport from Suriname, where he is attending the CBC’s Annual General Assembly.

The tournament this year, which will serve as a qualifier to FIBA’s AmeriCup, will see Guyana being grouped with long-time rival and host Suriname, along with Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Meanwhile, Group B will bring together Haiti, Bermuda, Montserrat, Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda.

Guyana has featured at every tournament under Hinds’ tenure at the helm of the GABF, with their best finish being fifth place in 2015, behind former Indiana Pacers and Dallas Mavericks shooting guard, Rawle Marshall.

“What we will try to do is bring in, as much as possible, players–those born in Guyana and living overseas. We have some people helping us to identify some players. We know of the James brothers–there are four of them. They’ve played a lot of basketball in Europe,” Hinds had initially said.

According to the GABF boss, he’s projecting that the teams–both male and female–should start assembling at least by March, adding “Suriname is close by and we would really love to medal at this championship. So, right now, we’re working on identifying Guyanese who would’ve played College and semi-professional.”

Guyana had a horrid showing at the last CBC tournament, held in the British Virgin Islands in 2015, finishing last in the 10-team tournament in which they failed to pick-up a win.

While the male team’s highest placing was second (1994 Georgetown), the females in 1996, led Karen Abrams and Head Coach Linden ‘Sancho’ Alphonso, won the coveted female CBC (then known as CARICOM basketball Championship) title, defeating Jamaica 67-55 in the final at the Jean Pierre Sports Complex in Trinidad and Tobago.

That win remains Guyana’s only taste of the sport’s ‘Holy Grail’ for regional basketball.

Meanwhile, the GABF was given an award by the game’s regional governing body, the CBC, in recognition of their outstanding performance and dedicated service in promoting basketball in the Caribbean.

The presentation was done at the two-day CBC Annual General Meeting in Paramaribo.