President of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF), Michael Singh says the body is targeting Saturday to commence training for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Pre-Qualifiers in February. According to Singh, the GABF has approached the relevant authority, the Ministry of Health, to commence training.
Plans are currently being formulated by the national coach Junior Hercules and the federation’s executive committee on the preparatory phase.
Singh added that the necessary sanitization and cleaning will be conducted at the facility and all the COVID-19 protocols will be observed for the entire training period.
“We have engaged the ministry to start the preparation for the World Cup Qualifiers.
“The national coach and the GABF executive are going to be starting the process to work on the preparation.
“The aim is to start working on Saturday and Sunday which will allow us to have a feel of who is fit and who isn’t.
“We will eventually break down the squad as we continue training. We will ensure that the facility is cleaned and sanitized and make sure that all protocols are in place.”
The GABF was initially denied approval to commence training for the championships by the National COVID-19 Task Force.
According to the 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.”
The prestigious tournament is scheduled to be hosted from February 17th-21st in the Central American nation of El Salvador. 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.
Alex Graham has been confirmed as the Team Manager. The Assistant Coach is yet to be identified for the prestigious qualifier.
