?SADE CLARKE’s omission is causing quite the stir.
?Head coach Terry Inniss is refuting claims from Clarke’s connections that she was left off the women’s national basketball side for his own personal reasons rather than on fitness grounds.
The situation all came to a head recently when Clarke’s mother, Andrea Cox, claimed the decision was made due to a Canadian scholarship that went bad for Clarke in 2008 under Inniss’ watch as then Barbados Amateur Basketball Association president.
According to Cox, her daughter was forced to return home from Northern Alberta Institute of Technology after spending just one term, and contends Inniss didn’t take kindly to her not finishing the stint in Canada.
“I don’t know if it would look bad on seeing that Terry is the person who helped orchestrate the scholarship and it all fell to pieces, but when she came back, Sade and Terry never had a relationship after that, but before that there was never any tension,” Cox said.
??Ludicrous
??But Inniss has slammed the accusation as being ludicrous, arguing Clarke’s exclusion was made solely on the basis that the gifted play-maker couldn’t make the coaching staff’s fitness criteria.
“She is unfit, full stop. She failed the beep test and she is the slowest person on the team, so instead of running to the media her mother should have gotten her to run and get fit,” argued Inniss.
“One of the first criteria that we had when we sat down with the girls was fitness but every time we have sprints she is coming in at the back. So I am highly offended that anyone would feel that I would choose a Barbados team on the basis of something that happened back in 2008.”
The huge fallout has followed Clarke’s rather surprising omission, with the seasoned 25-year-old floor general failing to make a rebuilding team featuring seven regional rookies despite appearing in every single game for Barbados since 2007.
??Controversial scholarship
??More importantly, though, the contention between both sides shed light on a controversial scholarship offer to six local players, who all returned home within a year following a mix-up with playing and living conditions at the university.
According to Clarke, she and the five other players had ended up having to pay for their books despite the promises of then head coach Curtis Nelson – who came to Barbados and recruited the group – while three of them ended up sleeping on the floor of off-campus housing.
Worse yet, they were informed of a Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association rule which restricts basketball teams to playing only two international players in the same game only after they arrived at college.
??Never told
??“We were never told about that rule because we wouldn’t have all agreed to go if that was the case, but I always found it funny that one college took up six Bajans at once,” said Clarke.
“And I’m wondering if Terry knew then why he would let us go and have players get benched for games on a stretch.”
However, Inniss insists that he only knew of the stipulation after the players returned and even remembers saying he never liked that scholarship opportunity when he realised Clarke and company would have to work overseas while studying.
“People have convenient memories because I remember so many parents saying I didn’t want to see their kids get through when I told them I wasn’t happy with those particular scholarships,” said Inniss.
“And to say that I knew about anything that happened in Canada before they came back is erroneous, but not as erroneous as people thinking I have an axe to grind over something that happened in 2008 that quite frankly I don’t feel two ways about.”
Nelson, who was on probation at the time, was subsequently released when Linda Henderson was hired as the director of Athletics and Recreation shortly afterwards. But his stepdaughter, Dale-Marie Cumberbatch, is slated to make her Barbados debut next month at the Caribbean Basketball Confederation Championships in Tortola.
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