By Floyd Christie
The Summer International Basketball Series which is scheduled to jump off on August 19 was officially launched yesterday by coordinators of the event, Wildfire Entertainment (WE), in the boardroom of M. Beepat and Sons on Regent Street.
The launching of the upcoming Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) organized series was attended by Chief Executive Officer of WE, Jonathan Beepat, Vice President of the GABF Michael Burnett and event managers Vijay Panday and Warren Williams.
Speaking at the launching Beepat said the basketball series is officially dubbed “International Basketball in the Hall” and will be a very entertaining three nights of basketball on August 19, 23, and 24.
This is the GABF’s inaugural summer basketball tournament and WE is no stranger to promoting basketball tournaments.
WE, well known among the basketball fraternity for their annual basketball all-star weekend, assured that the tournament, which involves the DC Jammers from Washington DC and the South Carolina female All-stars competing against the Guyana national male and female teams, will be “very exciting.”
“I’m encouraging everyone to come out because the games are going to be very exciting… I’m sure everyone is going to have a great time once they come out,” Beepat declared.
Addressing the gathering on behalf of the GABF, Burnett noted that the Federation is pleased to partner with WE.
“This is the first year that we’re going to have the Colonel Godwin McPherson Tournament, where we bring international teams to Guyana to contest our national team,” Burnett said.
He noted that the DC Jammers have been touring Guyana for some 20 years now, while the female team visited last year.
“They were suitably impressed and want to assist in developing basketball,” Burnett said.
Burnett further stated that the GABF envisioned greater participation from overseas teams but due to financial constraints this was not possible. He however assured there will be much more participation in future as the GABF seeks to make the tournament an annual “entertaining and worthwhile event.”
The tournament is in honour of the former president of the GABF, Colonel Godwin McPherson who died in July 2009.
Games will begin at 7:00pm nightly and admission per night is $1,000. Supporters will also be entertained by side attractions such as performances from local artistes and dancers.
