By Rawle Toney
The 7th Annual Beepat Scorpions All-Star basketball extravaganza has now been shifted to November 7-8, which according to head coach of the Georgetown-based basketball club Vejai Panday, to make sure the event is given its fullest attention by the general public.
Initially October 31-November 1 was announced as the dates for the event but with the annual Hits and Jams Car and Bike Show as well as a mega concert at the Providence National Stadium being scheduled the same weekend, the club believes that it is best they make an adjustment.
“We don’t want to clash with anyone because over the years we have not so we want to keep it that way. So we checked, there is nothing happening that weekend which is as big as our event so we would be running it the 7th and 8th of November,” Panday said.
For the seventh year, the club had wanted to have a Caribbean All-Star team coming up against a Guyana All-Star event, but Panday noted that their plan for that will now have to wait, maybe until next year since they are facing financial constraints.
“Well what happened was we wanted to bring some of players in from the Caribbean to play against our guys but things fell through. But what we will be doing is bringing four players in from Trinidad and Tobago and two from Suriname,” said Panday.
One of those players from the twin island republic is their premier national player, Steven ‘Lighter’ Lewis, who once held the slam dunk title in 2007 and also would thrill the patrons at the sports hall with his high flying manoeuvres.
Nevertheless, Panday said that they would return to Linden/Georgetown rivalry which they first introduced in 2006.
“Both junior and senior teams of Linden and Georgetown will go at it again and we all know what those two teams can bring. Also we will put at least four of the foreign players, two in the Linden side and two in the Georgetown side,” the Scorpions basketball team coach said.
As it relates to the slam dunk and three-point shoot out competition Panday related that Lewis has said that he would be coming to reclaim his title which was taken away from him in emphatic fashion last year.
“Lighter said that he is coming to collect his title but I’m not sure because it will be tough this year because Carl Jackman who plays overseas will also be part of it this year. Also we want to make sure we give away the $100,000 half court shot which has never been won. And not to mention we have a huge surprise for the fans, we want to give away more money with the fans participation and so on, so without a doubt it will be a big event,” Panday noted.
The event will officially be launched on Thursday, October 15 when more details for the event will be unfolded.
