Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) President Michael Singh said the entity achieved its main focus in 2014 which was to provide the avenue for players to be constantly active in the sport through the staging of regular competitions.
In an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sports, Singh said: “2014 was good. The aim was basically to keep the players active at the first divisional level. All the levels were also active and at the federation level we had the home and away school programme which was positive.”
Singh, who also hold the portfolio of Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) Vice President said: “We had the Masters playing ball and we also had all the second and third-division teams playing in Georgetown.”
Questioned about the highpoint of the year for the association, he declared “I would not say there was one particular high point but the fact that we pulled off 12-14 tournaments show we were the most active association.
“Apart from that we had a lot of exchange programmes with Linden. The main thing was providing the opportunity for the players to be active. Activity was the highpoint and there was no sign of dormancy. 2014 was the most active basketball year since the Trevor Rose era. We had in the vicinity of 400 games.”
According to Singh, the association needs new blood within the referee’s fraternity as well as more statisticians and table officials. He noted the GABA official website will also be on the agenda so that team rosters and all-round stats for every team under the entity’s umbrella can be properly managed.
“We need more infrastructure building in the sport. Also at the top of the list is another indoor facility. It is not that we don’t have a relationship with the National Sports Commission, it’s the availability of the Sports Hall.”
Questioned about the expectation for the 2015 season, Singh said: “We will continue to work on the structure of the clubs. Each team must have their infrastructure in place and instead of teams we have to create clubs.
“They need a better structure, a better hierarchy, they need sponsors and if they don’t have a structure, they won’t have sponsors. We are pushing for them to have structure from coaches to their executive office,” he said.
