By Floyd Christie
President of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) Trevor Rose hopes that the current Super Ward basketball championships will transform into a semi-professional league.

Further, Rose believes that the tournament will be the turning point for basketball since the sport has a large following and it has been receiving good corporate support for some time now. This would assist with the association’s long-term agenda, he said.

“I’m confident that once the first few tournaments we have scheduled for this year are successful, not that much… funding will have to come from the corporate community,” Rose said, as he explained his vision to market basketball so that it could generate enough funding to sustain itself.

“We have a strong following; it’s just a matter of marketing the game properly and finding ways and means of keeping funding and monies acquired through basketball and ensure that we put it back into the right places for the development of the game,” Rose said.

Rose stated in the interview that while GABA has been able to accumulate funding more easily than in the past years, the association doesn’t plan on stopping there. His association intends to appeal to the government for a plot of land and seek more funding to build its own indoor facility.

Meanwhile, for the first quarter of the year, Rose told Stabroek Sport that among the association’s achievements was the implementation of its short-term plan to ensure basketball was played more consistently in Georgetown. This had been done via the re-introduction of outdoor basketball which had been dormant for the past six years.

It was owing to the deplorable condition of the main outdoor facility, the Burnham Court, that indoor tournaments, such as the Super Wards Championship, had been substituted.

As part of its long-term plans GABA will also be embarking on various projects under its Basketball Advancement Programme (BAP). Among these are the Burnham Court rehabilitation project, coaching and refereeing seminars and with the assistance of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, familiarizing more youths with the sport by taking basketball into various deprived communities in the form of fun days.

According to Rose, in his view a lot of players use basketball as a method of stress relief. With this in mind, GABA will also be looking to work with the Welfare Department to arrange special counselling for players who might be experiencing domestic problems.

Additionally, with funds generated from tournaments the association would be looking to extend sponsorship to players who cannot afford to take advantage of educational opportunities, such as attending the University of Guyana.

“We want to use basketball as a tool to structure our youth’s development in a more professional way, and sport I think, is the key,” Rose said as he cited experiences from his own past where he found himself on the basketball court rather than being involved in unlawful activities.

The Burnham Court rehabilitation project would entail the extension of the bleachers for patrons, a new lighting facility, new backboards, players’ benches and an officials’ box. In addition, Rose went on, with the city council’s permission the possibility exists that more comprehensive rehabilitation could be undertaken on Burnham Court, such as the construction of a more modern facility with a new concrete bleacher, dressing rooms, washrooms and canteens.

GABA has already acquired $3M of the $10M grant they received for funding the rehabilitation project, which has a final cost of approximately $20M based on the design submitted by the architect. The association will be looking to launch the project when the Super Wards Championship concludes.

“By the time the Super Wards is over, all the necessary permissions will be granted and hopefully we (will) have the green light to go full strength ahead and start construction,” Rose posited.

GABA has also been making enquiries with Fibre Tech to conduct temporary repairs to a broken backboard at the Burnham Court before the actual rehabilitative work begins.
The coaching and refereeing seminars will be open to all local coaches and officials, and are aimed at familiarizing them with the new rules and guidelines governing the game. This is in a context where the association is seeking to enforce discipline in the league and at tournaments through its disciplinary committee to ensure the proper development of the sport in Guyana.