Latest update May 22nd, 2026 12:38 AM
What about a Goodwill Int’l Series or Tour for our Senior Basketballers?
Dear Editor,
Its approaching 2010 and the last time the Guyana Senior National Basketball Team participated in an international event was August 2007 at the C.B.C tournament in Puerto Rico.
Even then only overseas players participated because several locals were denied visas.
The last time a senior Guyana team left these shores for a Goodwill International Series was 1994 when Erik Rasheed took an 18-man squad, training for the then 1994 Caricom Championship, which was hosted by Guyana, to Barbados. That tour ended controversially because of some biased officiating by the Barbadian Referees resulting in Coach Rashad ordering his players off the floor, but the experience gained proved invaluable because Guyana finished the 1994 Caricom Championship as the runner-up to Barbados.
The squad for the Goodwill Series in Barbados was:
Leon Christian – HI Flyers
Ron Robertson – Mackenzie Hawks
Dane Kendall – Colts United
Lugard Mohan – Ravens
Eion Leitch – Colts United
Shawn Semple – Eagles
Lancelot Loncke – Globe Trotters
Remington Ram – Globe Trotters
Rawlwin Loncke – Pacesetters
Don Fletcher – Eagles
Edgar Thomas – Ravens
Robert Cadogan – Pacesetters
Lorenzo Withrite – Colts United
Kerwin LaFarque
Ralph Scotland – Pacesetters
Elijah Wilson- Colts United
The previous Goodwill tour was to Suriname August of (1991). The squad was:
Auric Tappin – Captain
Ron Robertson – Mackenzie Hawks
Troy Chin – Mackenzie Hawks
Roy Jeffrey – Wisroc Pacers
Wayne Andries – Wismar Pistons
Robert Cadogan – Pacesetters
Eion Leitch – Colts United
Nigel Taitt – Eagles
Edgar Thomas – Ravens
Shawn Semple – Eagles
Gregory Wyles – Eagles
Dane Kendall – Colts United
This tour was organized after Guyana’s poor showing at the Caricom Championship in Jamaica a month earlier. Experience players Captain Leon Christian, Mark Agard and Robert Byass who were all part of the Caricom Squad in Jamaica, withdrew from the Suriname tour so that Troy Chin, Edgar Thomas and Roy Jeffrey could gain some international exposure.
In 1981, Guyana, led by Hewley Harry, had participated in a Goodwill series in Trinidad and Tobago and this was to assist the Twin Island Republic in their preparation for an engagement in China.
A national team was hastily assembled after Guyana failed to participate at the (2002) Caricom Championship in the US Virgin Islands but the Lugard Mohan led squad that toured Antigua was entirely sponsored by the Infamous Empire Trust Company whose Managing Director was President of G.A.B.A. It seems like the G.A.B.F is waiting for another Empire Trust for our National Basketballers to gain International Competition and exposure.
When would the following players mentioned below with the exception of Steven Neils Jr and Darcel Harris boast of representing Guyana at the senior level overseas:
Darcel Harris
Ryan Stephney
Ryan Gullen
Jason Alonzo
Akeem Kanhai
Dwayne Roberts
Marvin Hartman
Nkossi Gurrick
Royston Siland
Carlos Crandon
Steve Neils Jr.
Charwayne Walker
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