Basketball stakeholders to meet

Apr 13, 2009 Sports

– mulls CBC participation

By Edison Jefford

After failing to secure the rights to host the eminent Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championships, local basketball stakeholders are expected to meet soon to decide whether or not Guyana will participate in the contest.

Following the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) and Government’s failure to arrive at a compromise over a CBC hosting budget earlier this year, the rights to host the event was awarded to the British Virgin Islands.

Flashback!!! Guyana’s national basketball team that participated in Puerto Rico in 2007 when visa issues prevented local players from being included. If Guyana is represented this year will local players have the opportunity?

A source close to the national federation told Kaieteur Sport yesterday that the three main stakeholders in the sport locally are scheduled to meet tentatively this week at the request of the GABF to choose the best way forward.

“The federation has decided to meet with the Georgetown and Linden sub–associations to decide what to do. Georgetown have already confirmed their availability; we are waiting on Linden to get confirmation,” the source indicated.

President of the GABF, Godwin McPherson had told this newspaper earlier this year that Guyana would not have considered participation at CBC if the championships were to be held in any United States of America territory.

McPherson’s reason for the statement was that he does not want the visa disappoint that’s usually associated with local players. The comment was directly related to the 2007 CBC US visa let down that shocked local players.

As obtained with Puerto Rico two years ago, visas are required to enter the British Virgin Islands but the GABF boss have not made any reservation about the British visa process public as he had done with the United States.

It was not stated yesterday whether the urgency to decide the fate of Guyana was directly related to the fact that applications for British visas must be done within a certain time span and more so the fact that the event is in June.

“We want to get certain things out of the way so that our local tournaments can continue without interruption,” the informant said, adding that a budget is available for some $3M that Guyana needs if the country is to participate.

Guyana sent a purely overseas–based male team to the competition in 2007 and could be heading down a similar road this year if early steps are not taken to ensure that funding and visas are available for the national candidates.

More often than not, the decision to send only overseas players is the easier route for the national federation since they often fund their own way. However, a similar outcome this year is expected to rouse extensive criticism.

When asked if the GABF has short–listed players for the event, the source said that they are looking at some local athletes.

McPherson had previously stated that the federation is in possession of an old list of 20 plus players.