The 21-year-old University of Guyana student told Stabroek Sport in an invited comment that he has already began his individual preparation so that he can not only return to the tournament but improve on his previous performance. At the last CBC championships in 2011, Guyana finished seventh of the nine participating countries. The tournament was won by US Virgin Islands but Guyana’s overseas based guard Keron McKenzie emerged as the tournament’s leading scorer.
Kanhai, who had just turned 20 prior to that tournament, managed to finish fifth overall in steals and seventh overall in rebounding for the tournament. Kanhai and McKenzie were the only two players to break into the top ten in any of the statistical categories for the tournament. Other than Kanhai’s team leading 41 total rebounds (at an average of eight per game) and 13 steals (just over two per game) throughout the tournament Kanhai’s numbers on the stats sheets were far from impressive.
Kanhai’s two-point field goal percentage was 22 percent after scoring just six of 27 shots, and two of 14 (14 percent) from beyond the arc. Kanhai scored 23 points total in five games, and led Guyana with 19 turnovers, but he was one of the youngest players at the CBC championships that year.
Commenting specifically on that performance, Kanhai said that he realises his faults and hopes to improve in the near future.
“I think I need to equip myself with a jump shot. I didn’t shoot the ball well, and I mostly played the point guard position which demands alot of me especially being a leader,” Kanhai said.
Close to two years later, Kanhai, now a starter on the country’s top team Ravens, has matured and is still looking to improve on his game. While there has not been much competitive play in local basketball over the last year, Kanhai said that he continues to practise with his team and is waiting to seize the opportunity to represent Guyana once again this year.
His present training regimen includes gym-work and practise sessions with the University of Guyana’s basketball team as well as Ravens basketball club. The UG team is currently preparing to compete at the University of the West Indies Basketball Invitational Tournament next month and Kanhai is one of the top candidates to make that team.
On the local scene, Kanhai was selected to the squad for the Georgetown versus Linden season open early next month, afterwhich he will compete in the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association Super League with Ravens.
Looking ahead to the tournament this year, Kanhai hopes that Guyana will be improve on the last performance but he thinks that it is virtually impossible for Guyana to be one of the tournament’s top contenders.
“I think to be a championship contender at CBC would not be possible this year, however I think we have a chance of spacing at least 4th or 5th, providing that our federation provides an intense training schedule leading up to the games,” Kanhai added.
According to the Kanhai, who is also a first year UG student in the faculty of technology, Guyana, lacked the speed, size and strength to compete at that level and it showed in some of their blow-out losses. They were a few close games that Guyana lost, and according to Kanhai, this was a direct result of the lack in team chemistry. President of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) David Patterson said that Guyana will be competing in the CBC championships this year with both a male and female team according to the CBC official site (http://www.caribbeanbasketball.com/). Patterson reportedly stated that the federation will be looking to include more overseas based players this time around to improve on Guyana’s chances to compete at the CBC level.
