Twinkillas.com to pay for Guyana’s participation fee for CBC senior basketball
By Joe Chapman
Guyana Chronicle
February 12, 2007
AFTER realising the constraints the local governing Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation is facing to return Guyana to the international basketball scene, the Twinkillas.com website, owned by former Guyanese basketball players, will raise the necessary funds to pay for the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation’s CBC annual membership subscription and the registration fees for this year’s CBC competition in Puerto Rico and will also provide uniforms for the Men's National Team.
This much was assured from the Guyanese brothers, Patrick and Paul Haynes, who reside in the United States and have a vested interest in providing the federation with the vehicle to clear hurdles in an attempt to have Guyana participate at this level for the first time in seven years.
Among their recent contributions were: the uniforms used by the youth teams in last year’s Inter-Guiana Games in Suriname, trophies and several other prizes for the just-concluded Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association’s Super League championship.
They are, however, seeking assurance from the local governing body that it will ensure the necessary participation becomes possible.
A non-refundable fee of US$1 000 is charged for each team which intends to participate at these championships. A decision was taken late last month to have the Caribbean Basketball Confederation’s (CBC) Senior Men’s and Women’s basketball championships staged this year in Puerto Rico, with the male tournament being played August 6-10 in Caguas and the female tournament August 11-14 August in Morovis.
Last year’s biennial championships saw Jamaica win the men’s tournament and the female title. In 2004 the Cubans dominated the championship at home to win both crowns and last year the Jamaicans, playing at home, scored the double. Guyana last contested the Caricom Basketball Championships in Barbados in 2000.
But the CBC Executive Committee in November last year in the United States Virgin Islands decided that the Junior Tournaments would not be played as planned in 2007.
The bid for the staging of the championship was won by Puerto Rico over the Dominican Republic and Suriname, whose bids were not considered after they failed to show up at the General Assembly of the Caribbean Basketball Confederation, which met towards the end of January in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles.
But the decision to divide the tournaments came from the Puerto Rico Basketball Federation and was supported by the majority of the Caribbean Federations. However, this was after host nation Puerto Rico's Federation had proposed to stage only the men's tournament. But the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) rules mandate that both competitions be held in the same country.
A maximum of ten teams including Cuba and the Dominican Republic will be allowed to enter this tournament according to the organisers and the teams must be registered by March 1 by paying a non-refundable registration fee of US$1 000 for each team. The two top teams will qualify for the 2008 Centrobasket Tournament.