Seven basketballers should know their fate sometime today.
The Barbados Amateur Basketball Association’s (BABA) executive council is set to reveal the rulings of its disciplinary committee following Thursday’s hearing that dealt with last weekend’s player brawl between Premier League sides Warriors and Cougars.
Expected to be one of the biggest multiple-player suspensions in recent history, the committee’s decision wasn’t released as scheduled yesterday after BABA president Derrick Garrett said his body wanted a day to go through the rulings.
Eight players are likely to face heavy sanctions as the fallout of an on-court fracas that saw both benches cleared and a premature end to a matchup of unbeaten teams.
The three-man committee of Leroy Williams, Colvin Mascoll and Colin Cumberbatch heard cases for seven of the eight players – after Jamar Farrell indicated he would be unavailable due to work commitments – in a hearing that lasted an hour and 45 minutes.
“The hearing went quite well,” reasoned Garrett, who also attended the meeting at the Barbados Olympic Association’s headquarters along with other on-court players and character witnesses.
“All the players expressed personal regret over the incident and all of them have actually come to me personally and said that they were sorry about what happened.
“We also received letters of apology from some players and both clubs, so I guess there really is remorse on their part.
“Most of the players would understand that this was terrible but I must say they’ve all shown regret over what happened so I would say I am satisfied with the hearing,” he added.
An inside source said the players were faced with charges ranging from fighting, arming themselves and using chairs as weapons.
It’s the second time in 11 months a basketball game ended abruptly due to a melee, following last May’s UWI brawl between rivals Cave Hill and Mona. And this was one month before Cavs forward Ricardo Yearwood was hit with a life ban for dropkicking an opponent.
Up to press time, there was also no decision on the final 2:38 minutes of the Warriors-Cougars game as Garrett said the report was still before the BABA’s technical committee, which is scheduled to meet today.
With five other players expected to receive automatic one-game suspensions for leaving the bench and walking onto the playing area, Warriors are likely to be without at least seven players for tonight’s featured contest against fellow unbeatens Cavaliers.
Cougars will probably be missing another five in their matchup with undefeated league champs Lakers tomorrow.
