Guyana Amateur Basket-ball Federation (GABF) President David Patterson said he expects the Guyana male team to improve on their seventh place showing at the last Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championships held in the Bahamas 2011 when they compete in the CBC tourney later in the year.
In a telephone interview with Stabroek Sport, Patterson said: “Preparations have been coming along.
It’s a hard tournament to win but I expect us to be in the top four. The idea is to get in to the Centrobasket Championships and in order to achieve that we must improve three or four places.”
Questioned about the inclusion of foreign players within the national setup and the criteria that will be utilised to select them, Patterson posited: “At the end of June and probably first week in July all the foreign players will be coming to Guyana to compete in the Godwin McPherson Memorial Series. This series will be used to determine which foreigners will make the team. Currently everyone is eligible and all that is required of the foreign players is to acquire a Guyanese passport. This is stipulated by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA).
“With regard to the local players, the process of short listing them is currently being undertaken. This procedure is being done by the respective coaches, associations as well as the GABF technical team spearheaded by GABF Vice-President of Operations Floyd Levi.”
According to Patterson the females are expected to be very competitive in their division and much easier to select because of the fact that they have an established corps of players.
“The women should be right up there especially if it’s the same team that won the Gillian Brazier Basketball Championship in Antigua and Barbuda last year. I expect them to be extremely competitive and the timetable and rules with regard to selecting local and foreign players will be the same for the women as well,” said Patterson.
The CBC Championships or Caribebasket is a FIBA-sponsored basketball tournament where national teams from the Caribbean participate. These countries make up CBC.
The top three or four teams typically earn berths to Centrobasket Championship where they compete for spots in the FIBA Americas Championship from which they can qualify for the FIBA World Championship or Olympics. There are currently 24 Caribbean countries that may compete in this event and the tournament typically is held every two years. Earlier in the month, Trinidad and Tobago officially pulled out of hosting the event and CBC is yet to name an alternative venue.
