Barbados’ basketball will definitely be returning to regional hoops action.
Four years after last contesting a senior tournament, the Barbadian ballers are set to make their comeback at the Caribbean Basketball Championships (CBC) for 2014 after recently paying deposits to ensure the participation of both the men’s and women’s squads.
Barbados Amateur Basketball Association (BABA) president Derrick Garrett confirmed Barbados’ participation following the announcement of Tortola as host for next year’s competition, which is slated to run from June 24 to July 4.
“We want to get back on a solid footing to compete and in order to do that we need the necessary competition to raise our standard, so at this stage this is the best scenario,” said Garrett.
“It was always the ultimate goal for us to get back on the top of Caribbean basketball where we fell from grace since 2000. So in the future we may have exchange visits to have our teams properly prepared.”
It’s the much-welcomed news for a reeling programme which seemed destined to make its big comeback in June before the Caribbean Basketball Confederation had to cancel this summer’s tourney after failing to find a host for either the men’s or women’s competition.
This coming after Barbados were forced to skip the 2011 men’s championships when the previous BABA executive failed to apply for the necessary funding from the Barbados Olympic Association.
And that was directly following three successive poor showings from the men’s side, which had a fifth and two sixth-place efforts in 2005, 2007 and 2009 respectively.
But the fallen powers – last men’s and women’s champs in 2000 – appeared to be back on the comeback trail earlier this year while acquiring the services of former NCAA Division I Collegiate guard Brian Good to coach the men’s squad.
The women, who last competed at the 2008 Centrobasket tournament in Puerto Rico, also showed signs of encouragement while attending practice sessions under head coach Adrian Craigwell.
Trinidad and Tobago were supposed to host the championships in June before pulling out at the last minute due to a lack of funding from Government.
Tortola, who was financially successful in hosting the 2009 edition tournament in 2009, seemed willing to fill the void until the British Virgin Islands Government revealed that it couldn’t come up with the necessary funding at such short notice.