President of the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) David Patterson is uncertain if the senior national basketball teams will be participating in this year’s Caribbean Basketball Championships (CBC) in June-July.
In September of last year Patterson was “over 80% sure” that Guyana will be contesting the event, but while speaking to Stabroek Sport yesterday the GABF boss was not too certain that Guyana would be returning to the CBC.
Estimating his certainty using a percentage as he did while speaking to Stabroek Sport in September, Patterson disclosed that he is now only about “70% sure” Guyana will be contesting the upcoming competition.
He stated that his doubt was increased because the venue for the tournament will be either in the Bahamas or Jamaica, but nevertheless the GABF is hoping to send a senior male and female national team.
Patterson noted that there was a meeting of the Caribbean Basketball Confederation General Council on February 5, where representatives from the Bahamas and Jamaica each bid to host the tournament, but the General Council will decide on which of the two nations will be the host “at the end of this month or early next month.”
However whether Jamaica or Bahamas is identified as the host, due to the northern Caribbean location of the two countries, Patterson explained it will be costly to finance the national teams’ participation in the CBC. This is the main reason for Patterson’s lowered certainty.
However, he said that the GABF will be analyzing its budget and looking at the possibility of sending the teams. He added that he is “disappointed the tournament is not in any of the southern Caribbean countries since it would’ve been more economical” to send national teams.
In his September interview with Stabroek Sport, Patterson was fairly confident that Guyana would take part in this year’s CBC. Since the staging of the event is staggered between the northern and southern countries of the Caribbean and the last tournament was held in the northern Caribbean (the British Virgin Islands), Patterson felt that this year’s tournament would’ve been hosted in the southern Caribbean.
The CBC last saw Guyana in 2007 when the biennial tournament was held in Puerto Rico and the national team did not participate in the 2009 tournament held in the British Virgin Islands due to financial constraints.
The CBC or Caribebasket tournament is sponsored by the Fédération Internationale de Basketball (FIBA) and is contested by national basketball teams from the Caribbean.
There are currently 24 Caribbean countries eligible to compete in this event and these countries make up the Caribbean Basketball Confederation.
