Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 05, 2009 Sports
By Edison Jefford
Because of the difficulties usually associated with the procurement of United States visas for locally–based national basketball players, Guyana will not participate if the Caribbean Championships are held in a US territory this year.
President of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF), Godwin McPherson in an invited comment yesterday, told Kaieteur Sport that he is weary with the problems encountered in applying for visas for players.
“I don’t want to put players through spending money for visa application and all that then at the end of the day, they don’t get to play. I am not prepared to go down that line and we will all have to make a decision,” he said.
McPherson was speaking ahead of a Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) meeting in Saint Lucia on Saturday where, among other decisions, the host country for the 2009 Caribbean Championships will be decided.
The GABF boss was also speaking against the backdrop of the 2007 fiasco where a group of players were denied US visas to travel to Puerto Rico for the championships, resulting in entire overseas–based representative teams.
Guyana’s representation in 2007 was compulsory after paying the US $1,000 each for the both male and female teams. The same amount applies this year per team where CBC has already determined the February 29 deadline.
McPherson made it clear that it is the intention of the GABF to send representative teams to CBC this year if it is not in US territory. He said that he will be fully apprised of the details following Saturday’s CBC meeting.
Asked if a delegate from Guyana will be attending the summit in Saint Lucia, McPherson indicated that the federation are exploring the possibilities despite the fact that they are desperately in need of financial assistance.
“We are looking at it. We are looking at one of our officials who is likely to be in the area at the same time of the meeting,” he said, while opting to keep the official’s identity concealed because the arrangement is not final.
McPherson informed that there will be no implication if the GABF fail to send an official to the CBC forum this weekend. He said that the dues are important and once that is paid the federation does not have a problem with CBC.
“I will be sent official information on the tournament,” he highlighted after clearly stating his reason, in confidence, for not allowing Haynes Basketball Foundation’s choice, Larry Davis to attend the prestigious meeting.
The US-based Davis, who coached the representative Guyana male team two years ago in Puerto Rico, had volunteered to attend the meeting but McPherson, subsequently, vetoed the nomination on administrative grounds.
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