Patterson not happy with players’ approach
A DATE for the rescheduled finals of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) National Club Championship has not yet been finalised, according to its president David Patterson.
Speaking with Chronicle Sport yesterday, Patterson outlined that his Federation had not catered for a mishap, especially one which was non-basketball related, and as such it has placed them on the back foot as it relates to the preparation of the national team for this year’s Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championships, set for the Bahamas on July 25. The final, which is to played between Courts Pacesetters and Dyna’s Ravens, was ideally set for April 30 at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall but on the 29th, the GABF circulated a press release stating that “due to the unfortunate position taken by Pacesetters Club” the game had to be postponed.
According to the release from the GABF (Patterson) “Their (Pacesetters) coach (Bobby Cadogan) had indicated that he will be getting married on Sunday, May 1, and as such he would be unable to coach the team. In addition, some members of his team were invited to be part of his wedding ceremony; ss they were required to attend rehearsals on Saturday afternoon (April 30)”.
In the release, Patterson had noted that it “was pointed out that the final game was scheduled for 21:00hrs which we (GABF) assumed would allow ample time for all involved to be at the games but the club’s (Pacesetters) position was unchanged”.
Yesterday, the GABF said he was at his wits’ end as it relates to the attitude of the players involved and questioned how serious can they be, given the importance of the tournament.
Guyana, along with nine other countries affiliated to the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC), will be participating at the CBC Championships (Men) July 25 – 30 in Nassau, Bahamas, and it’s the hope of GABF to send an all-local team to the event.
Patterson said that the players’ approach is “unwelcome” to the game, given the fact the GABF answered their cries to return to the CBC with a local team and to play a more intricate role in the sports development.
“This of course will delay our short-listing of players to begin training for the CBC games. Further we had planned an Inter-Association competition to be held at the end of May/beginning of June – whereby all shortlisted players and coaches would have competed in a league format, from which the final 15 would have done further intensive training – this postponement has also placed that tournament in limbo,” Patterson said.
The Federation has long battled to attract major sponsorship for the game but this year, two major entities, Cellular service providers Digicel and Distributors Ansa McAl Limited came to their aid in sponsoring the Club Championship and have also both pledged their continued support once the players respond.
It is against this backdrop that Patterson is calling on the players to at least act if they would want aid in the games development, stating that “obstacles such as these negatively impact on our ability to attract corporate sponsors, whom we will be depending on heavily to fund our participation in the CBC games, thus we would like to implore teams to make all efforts to fully support the Federation’s activities”.