By Rawle Toney
After a hiatus of approximately six years basketball players and fans alike are gearing up for the return of outdoor competitive basketball when the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) open’s its 2008-2009 basketball season tomorrow at the Burnham Court.
This was disclosed to the media by the newly-elected executive of the GABA at a press conference yesterday attended by President Trevor Rose, first vice president James Bond, Secretary Bobby Cadogan and assistant secretary/treasurer Vijay Panday.
According to the GABA the season will commence with a basketball retreat and fun day which will feature all affiliated clubs and will take the format of a five-a-side knock-out tournament.
Each club will be allowed to field a maximum of four teams and prizes will be awarded to the top three clubs with the winner receiving $50,000, second-placed team $30,000 and third-placed team $20,000.
The GABA will then get down to serious business the following week with the opening of their third division league and the staging of an Open knock-out tournament which will bounce off on October 11.
Unlike previous years, all matches will be played at the Burnham Basketball Court and, according to Rose, the move is aimed at reviving the community’s interest in the sport.Rose stated that the Burnham Court, which was once the Mecca of basketball in Guyana, has over the years been neglected by the sport’s top brass who have resorted to using the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall for mainly financial reasons.
This, he said, was not a bad idea but with the sport in turmoil, it is important to regain the interest of the public and the only way for that to happen was to take the sport to the public.
He highlighted the fact that his administration was enthusiastic about the return of the game to the outdoors and stated that the GABA was already in the process of adopting the facility as the home of the sport in the city.
And, in keeping with their mandate to return the sport of basketball to the glory days, the GABA have dedicated the first quarter of the basketball year to development and to staging as much tournaments as possible.
They, however, pointed out that this would only be possible with the fullest co-operation of the business community.
Apart from plans to revive the sport, the association said it will soon be embarking on having the affiliated clubs adopt various schools in the city in an effort to revive the sport.
According to Cadogan, this idea was presented to them by the clubs themselves at a recent meeting of the association.