Following the denial of permission to begin training for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Pre-Qualifiers in February by the National COVID-19 Taskforce, GABF President Michael Singh, says that the entity will once again seek approval from the relevant authorities to commence team preparation.
This was disclosed during an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport yesterday.
He disclosed, “We have not written or approached them since, but we plan to approach again for approval. CONCECABA has a general assembly early in February and we plan to see what the rest of the Caribbean will do among other things and will follow suit but we plan to seek approval once again for the task force to start training.”
The GABF was dealt a severe blow ahead of their expected participation at the prestigious qualifier, as their request to commence preparation was denied by the Taskforce.
According to the official correspondence, which was dated December 8th and signed by the Director of the National COVID-19 Task Force Colonel Nazrul Hussain, approval was denied under the current COVID-19 Emergency Measures.
The letter stated, “I hereby acknowledge receipt of your request dates November 25th 2020 for the commencement of basketball training. I am to inform that the Minister of Health has not approved for the recommencement of Basketball activities under the current COVID-19 Emergency Measures (No.12). These events will have to be rescheduled to a time when the measures permit.”
Singh confirmed that the federation is committed to participating in the tournament, which is scheduled to be staged in El Salvador, once the relevant systems are in place. He added, “We are committed to going once all the systems are in place and once the host country is willing to facilitate and once we can meet the competitive level via training.”
Asked if the shrinking timeline is a concern for the management team in their effort to thoroughly prepare for the championship, Singh declared that he is far from concerned as several members of the team are overseas based. He added, “I am not worried about the timeline because we are also heavily reliant on overseas based players, players like Stanton Rose, Delroy James, Anthony Moe and Kevon Wiggins who are active.”
The prestigious tournament is scheduled to be hosted from February 17th-21st in the Central American nation of El Salvador. The Government’s new COVID-19 measures and guidelines allow for sport events to be staged once approval is sought and granted by the Ministry of Health.
The GABF has officially released their first provisional list of players for national team training. The 13 member provisional roster is headed by CBC winning captain Stanton Rose and features both local and overseas based players in the form of Travis Belgrave, Travis Burnett, Akeem Crandon, Delroy James, Anthony Moe, Nikkoloi Smith, Yannick Tappin, Timothy Thompson, Ray Victor, Shaine Webster, Terron Welch and Kevon Wiggins.
Coach Junior Hercules is tasked with the capacity of Head-coach, while Alex Graham has been confirmed as the Team Manager. The Assistant Coach is yet to be identified for the prestigious qualifier.
