The Guyana Amateur Basket-ball Federation (GABF) will begin a systematic attempt to correct some of the problems facing the sport as early as next weekend when the federation hosts its inter-association basketball championships.
President of GABF, Godwin McPherson told Stabroek Sport yesterday that the federation’s calendar of events for 2007 bounces off with a Georgetown vs Linden association basketball championships.
McPherson said that the federation will “seek to restore discipline” from the beginning of its first calendar event. To accomplish this task, McPherson said that the disciplinary committee of the federation would be active during the tournament.
“Sports is discipline in itself; it demands discipline and we will be activating our disciplinary committee during the tournament so that they can be active,” McPherson said, adding that he has already spoken to the executive responsible for discipline.
The president of the local basketball federation said the emphasis on discipline is in recognition of several complaints about that aspect of the sport. He said the federation would attempt to fix many of the problems that plague the sport this year.
President of the George-town Amateur Basketball Association (GABA), Chris Bowman stated in report carried yesterday in this newspaper that indiscipline had marred the recently-concluded GABA super league tournament.
In addition, President of the Linden Amateur Basket-ball Association (LABA), Colin Aaron and the Linden association handed down a heavy two-year ban on Ravens’ Dwayne ‘Sugar’ Roberts late last year.
Roberts was banned for his role in a fight that erupted during a Georgetown Ravens vs Linden Kings game at the McKenzie court. Bowman’s remarks about indiscipline followed a fight during the GABA league tournament.
The GABF will seek to heal the rift between players and associations when the federation brings the best players of the GABA and LABA together for a basketball showdown billed for the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall and the McKenzie court.
The dates set for the inter-association clash at the Sports Hall in Georgetown are February 10 and 17, while the McKenzie court in Linden will come alive on February 11.
Apart from the inter-association tournament, the GABF will also host a national club championships billed for March. Five top clubs in Georgetown, four from linden along with clubs from other parts of the country will vie for supremacy.
McPherson said that much emphasis would be placed on coaches and referees this year. Referees will benefit from a clinic in St Kitts while more coaches will receive international training.
Bowman had also blamed the poor turnout and crowd response at the GABA league tournament on poor officiating. The GABF hopes to have its hands on this issue with clear strategies this year.
“We will clearly identify and prepare referees to attend a Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) clinic in St Kitts. As soon as we get the dates from CBC we will begin talking to people identified and raising funds,” McPherson stated.
“Once we have referees trained and qualified we will do local training,” he said, adding that coaches will also be trained since currently Robert ‘Bobby’ Cadogan is the only active trained coach.
The dates for the CBC technical programmes such as referees and coaches clinics and the confirmation of the date and venue for the Caribbean Seniors Basketball Championships were part of the agenda of a CBC Annual General Meeting held last Saturday.
According to an e-mail sent to Stabroek Sport by Secretary General of the CBC, Sabrina Mitchell the meeting held in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles also sought to revise the CBC constitution among other matters.
McPherson said that the federation would be preparing Guyana’s male and female basketball teams for the CBC championships set for Puerto Rico at dates still to be announced.
Guyana last participated at the CBC championships in 2000 where the country placed third in the male championships held in Barbados.
Guyana’s best performance to date at the regional basketball championships was in 1994 and 1996 respectively. In 1994, the local male team was runners-up in the tournament while in 1996 Guyana’s female team carted off the championship trophy.
The federation says it intends to restore the pride of the national male and female teams at the Caribbean championships while ensuring that it has its hands on all matters relating to basketball in Guyana.
