says Rawle Toney

The last time I checked, basketball in the city was governed by the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) and not Courts Pacesetters.

Therefore I must strongly disagree with the decision by the game’s authority in the city to entertain the request of the Courts Pacesetters club to have their $100,000 winner-take-all grudge match against Ravens played without recently-appointed FIBA certified referees Lugard Mohan and Aubrey Younge.

Ravens thrashed Pacesetters 88-71 to lift the GABA Open knockout title last year and it was a general feeling on the part of Courts Pacesetters, that they lost simply because the referees Mohan and Young, then coach and assistant coach respectively of Ravens, were ‘blowing’ in favour of the eventual champions.

For tonight’s game sponsored by Wind Jammers Hotel, the officials will come from Linden and Georgetown and will not be Mohan and Younge.

I have a big problem with how the GABA handled the situation and I must ask who is really calling the shots here?

First off, the reputation and competency of the referees have to be taken into consideration because, in essence, what that decision is saying to the basketball public  is that Mohan and Younge are biased.

Contacted yesterday, Mohan said: “Look, honestly Toney, I don’t even want to comment too much on this because you know, I don’t want to come across controversial but honestly, it doesn’t make any sense and it’s no good for the sport.

“Who is really calling the shots here, I mean, since when the players call the shots on who must referee a game or not.

“All this will happen because there is no referees’ body really but once this comes into place a lot will change,” Mohan said.

Mohan a former Caricom All Star guard and national captain added… “we are not moved in any way because I mean we know we did a fair game so if they feel we slanted our calling well, fine, but who is taking our credibility into consideration?

He added:”But it’s no big deal. Things will change soon I hope, because we heading in the wrong direction with this.”

GABA boss Trevor Rose said after the GABA knockout Open final “the talk was that Pacesetters could have won the game but they felt that the referees, who were Ravens members, somehow contributed to the outcome of the game.

“So Wind Jammers said that they would do a grudge match and since we were about to open our new season, we facilitated it,” Rose explained.

Rose said the decision was a one-off one.

“This is just a one off something because we don’t want to set a precedent where any and every club coming and making such a request.

“We did it with no harm intended and like I said, this wouldn’t be happening in the future.”

But one-off or not, the decision by GABA is totally ludicrous and should not have been made.

If Courts Pacesetters feel that they are good enough to beat Ravens at any time it shouldn’t matter who the officials are.