The Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation [GABF] will stage a one night exhibition tournament dubbed ‘Battleground’ which is set to commence Saturday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, Homestretch Avenue.
This was disclosed by Michael Singh, President of the GABF during an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport.
The first match of the night will pit Eagles against Plaisance from 19:00hrs. This will be followed by Victory Valley Royals of Linden against Colts while the feature affair will pit Pacesetters against Ravens.
The winners of the first two matches will pocket $50,000, with the victor of the final match pocketing $100,000.
According to Singh, the competition is being used as a platform to ignite the local discipline as a precursor for the respective association level tournaments and leagues as well as the upcoming national club championships.
He added, “It’s an initiative to keep the teams active. After consultation with GABA we received the five top teams from Georgetown and Victory Valley Royals from the LABA [Linden Amateur Basketball Association]. It’s a one night event to keep the players active going into the respective three leagues. All three sub-associations will be involved in league play to determine the seeding. Out of the seeding, the top teams will participate in the Mecca [Club Championship] in December.”
Singh added that the respective leagues will be utilised to scout talents for the national setup ahead of the impending tour of the Grenada national team.
He said, “We are fine-tuning the Grenada tour which is almost 80 percent assured that it will happen. We basically know the composition of the nation team and we will look at the stats of the respective leagues determines if they are any other players who are knocking on the door for selection. We have our core of overseas players and our local core of players, it’s just a matter of putting pieces around them going forward.”
Meanwhile, Singh also disclosed that the GABA is scheduled to stage its Annual General Meeting and Electoral Congress.
He added, ‘The GABA will pronounce on their elections soon, we at the GABF will be looking at the various clubs within the league and encourage the respective administrators to take over the administration of the GABA.”
