By Rawle Toney

PATRICK Haynes, the lone Guyanese and West Indian on the recently-formed FIBA 3X3 Commission, revealed that a championship for basketball’s shortest and most exciting format will be implemented in the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) region.

Haynes, speaking exclusively to Chronicle Sport, highlighted that the Commission, which will be chaired by Russia’s and former Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko for the next four years (2019-2023), has given him the mandate to oversee the 3X3 format in Central America, the Caribbean and South America.

“Due to the rapid growth of 3X3 basketball, FIBA found it necessary for them to create the 3X3 Commission, so that they can properly govern the sport moving forward, not only leading up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, but also for the World Championships for each of the different continents,” Haynes said.

Over the years, thanks to Ansa McAl under its Mackeson brand, local ‘ballers’ battled in lucrative 3X3 tournaments.

However, now, Haynes said the fast-growing format is going to be used towards grassroots recruiting, where “national teams can start using 3X3 towards identifying talent to now field both junior and senior national teams.”

Patrick, who also serves as the General Secretary for the Guyana Basketball Federation (GBF), along with his twin brother Paul, have helped tremendously to return Guyana to the CBC Championship, usually going above and beyond to ensure that the GABA is properly equipped, both on and off to the court, to secure success.

Their hard work paid off in 2018, in Suriname, when Stanton Rose captained Guyana to their maiden CBC tournament title.

“As a Guyanese and a West Indian, I am honoured to be the only one to represent Central America, the Caribbean and South America (on the Commission) and they have given me the mandate to rule the sport in these three areas. I feel that I have the ability and the skills, seeing that I’ve already implemented two successful 3X3 competitions, partnering with the International Basketball Foundation (IBF),” Haynes noted.

The FIBA 3X3 Commission, which recently held a one-day meeting at the Patrick Baumann House of Basketball, FIBA Headquarters a newly-formed group, not in place in the previous working cycle and consisting of 18 members who are former or current 3X3 players, officials, national federations representatives and private organisers.

The commission held discussions on a wide range of topics which included an update on the growth of the FIBA 3X3 World Tour and the entire FIBA 3X3 competition network, the qualification system for national team events, the FIBA 3X3 Federation Ranking and women in 3X3 – one of FIBA’s priority strategic pillars.

During their life cycle, the Commission will be tasked to develop recommendations for improvement to 3X3 governance and organisation and for the introduction of new official 3X3 competitions, to give advice on the allocation of official 3X3 competitions, to be responsible for training, examining and implementing the requested qualification of all 3X3 officials and to draw up the text of the FIBA 3X3 Basketball Rules, draft amendments to these rules for adoption by the Central Board, give the official interpretation of the rules and solve doubtful cases or cases not clearly covered by the rules themselves.

They will also be tasked to study the regulations governing all 3X3 competitions and to recommend changes to such regulations and to monitor the state of 3X3 around the world and to make recommendations for the development of 3X3.

The meeting was also attended by FIBA Secretary General, Andreas Zagklis and FIBA Executive Director Europe, Kamil Novak.

The other members of the FIBA 3X3 Commission are Peter Bodnar (HUN), Lothar Boesing (GER), Jay Demings (USA), Jiang Guan (CHN), Patrick Haynes (GUY), Martin Ho Suie Sang (NED), Michal Konecny (CZE), Hoang Bao Nguyen (VIE), Jerome Prigent (FRA), Giancarlo Sergi (SUI), Myagmarjav Luvsandash (MGL), Radu Petre (ROU), Mikiko Yasuda (JPN), Rae Lin D’Alie (ITA), Jasmina Juras (SRB) and Michael Linklater (CAN).