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Pepsi Sonics write Sports Minister

Jul 11, 2009 Sports

Lament state of basketball

A source close to the Pepsi Sonics Basketball Club had told Kaieteur Sport this week that a letter was being drafted to be sent to the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr Frank Anthony over concerns on the state of basketball.
This newspaper has obtained a copy of the document that the ministry received sometime around Tuesday. The club had expressed reservations over the management of the sport in Georgetown, stating that it is being plundered.
Below is the full edited text of the letter that was sent to Anthony:
We, the Executive of the Pepsi Sonics Basketball Club have inked this letter to divulge our disgust at the plundering of the sport by individuals with a self opinionated agenda and not for its love or development.
Firstly, let us start at the foundation, where we think the neglect and pilfering are occurring: schools’ basketball and fundamentals. There are many school tournaments yearly and some organisers are satisfied with merely presenting a few trophies to participants, while collecting sponsorship from organisations; collecting admission fees; holding drinks bars and pocketing these proceeds for themselves. Some organisers even claim to use these tournaments to prepare our basketball players for the Inter-Guiana Games. That is fine for these organisers/promoters but not for us. It should not be fine for the vast number of young basketball athletes who give so much of their time and energies to a sport they love.
Over the past years, there was little or no improvement to the standard of living of these players due to the fact that there is no model to work with the people who administrate the sport. This is especially evident when you compare the Linden players to the Georgetown players fundamentally. There are no coaches assigned to the respective schools to teach the fundamentals of the sport even if you have to provide stipend for these individuals.

There are no seminars being held to teach these young men and women the rules and guidelines of the game so that they could have knowledge of the sport even though FIBA (International Basketball Association) is upgrading their guidelines every year or two.
There are no foreign coaches being brought in to educate our administrators and players alike as we see in table tennis, football, karate, cricket, just to name a few. There are no scouts to look at the young, talented athletes that we have to assist them in getting basketball scholarships, though some of them are academically sound. This could make them better individuals in society even if they do not make it professionally in sport.
There are no websites or newsletters to showcase our basketball athletes to their parents, peers, fans, nation and international community where their basketball statistic could be seen by high schools and colleges internationally.

There are no proper uniform for players at school games with sponsors’ logos but rather bibs with numbers on them, which are dangerous to players because their hands and fingers could be entangled in them.
There are no proper officiating guidelines being followed at school games because the organisers and administrators are not concerned about training young enthusiastic persons in the discipline of refereeing and table officiating. Economics have to do with these persons not availing themselves. There are no upgrading, refurbishing and even building of basketball facilities in schools. Sponsors could come on board to help. To name a few schools that need courts are Lodge Secondary, North Multilateral Secondary, North Georgetown Secondary, St. Joseph High, Charlestown Secondary and Queen’s College.
We know that if all these organisers could put away there individualistic attitude and let’s come together under a united commission, we could do far more to improve the lives of the young men and women in basketball.

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