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CBC Zoning Policy will benefit Guyana
– says Hinds
By Edison Jefford
President of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF), Nigel Hinds has indicated that
GABF President, Nigel Hinds (standing left, third row) joins other member federation and FIBA Officials at the CBC Congress in Barbados last weekend.
Guyana will benefit from the proposed shift in policy of the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) to have member federations compete in different zones.
Hinds was speaking to Kaieteur Sport yesterday following his return from CBC Congress, which was held in Bridgetown, Barbados over last weekend. Hinds said that member federations will be grouped before 2017, as part of CBC policy, in three zones.
“I believe this new structure of sort of trying to facilitate home and away games in south, central and northern zones will help to improve the quality of the CBC Championships,” he informed in an interview with this publication after his return on Monday.
Currently, the structure of the CBC Championships brings together interested members under an umbrella to compete for the title. But that will change before 2017 with teams competing in three zones before advancing to the CBC Championships.
According to a CBC press release, the policy is aimed at targeting the development of boards on a “closer” level. According to Hinds, Guyana will be in one of the zones in which it will be able to really compete as opposed to what obtained in the past. The move is sort of setting up a level playing field so that member federations can authentically compete.
Guyana has played against countries like the British Virgin Island, US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico in the past. Those teams usually feature prominently their NBA and European professionals in the sport, which puts some member federations at a disadvantage.
The 2015 CBC Championships is set for Tortola, British Virgin Islands, June 9-20; Guyana had competed last year and placed fifth. To continue to strengthen its participation, which has already been registered, Guyana will be hosting Bermuda next month.
Asked if he was able to advance any programme aimed directly at developing basketball on the domestic level, Hinds said “the meeting was a formality, no territory was specifically able to do so, but what was on the agenda for me was election of a Treasurer”.
Hinds, who is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) at Hinds and Statia Financial, was nominated to contest the vacant CBC post of Treasurer. However, the Antigua and Barbuda federation head, Daryll Matthew defeated Hinds 10-5 in the voting process, and was elected to serve during 2015-2019 as the new CBC Treasurer.
International Basketball Federation (FIBA) President, Horacio Muratore, FIBA in the Americas President, Usie Richards and Regional Director, Alberto Garcia, along with Central American and Caribbean Confederation (CONCENCABA), President Ruperto Herrera joined 18 of the 23 CBC Member Federations in Barbados last weekend.
The member federations present included, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, and the US Virgin Islands.
“I think the presence of the FIBA President at the CBC Congress speaks directly to the concern of development of basketball in the region. It was a move that ensured that the Executive feel as though they are connected right to the top,” Hinds indicated.
Meanwhile, Guyana’s National Basketball Championships, The Road to Mecca II will begin on Sunday February 15 at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall. The competition will be used to select the National Men’s Teams that will face Bermuda in March here in Guyana and compete at the 2015 CBC Championships.
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