BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE local basketball fraternity which was gearing-up to see the return of St. Kitts and Nevis to regional competitions, will have to wait for at least another 12 months.
This wait evolved from the national team’s withdrawn from the U-16 Caribbean Basketball Championships slated for Georgetown, Guyana in July.
At the draw ceremony in Georgetown last Sunday (May 1) which was also aimed at confirming the various countries participation, it was reported that St. Kitts and Nevis was absent from the pool of teams.
When contacted for a comment, General Secretary of the St. Kitts and Nevis Basketball Association, Wallis Wilkin explained that the team was withdrawn from the tournament over a week ago.
He informed that based on the pool of players that the Association has in the U-16 category, it was decided that they could better serve following development programmes.
According to Wilkin, a decision was relayed to the organizing committee by the Association that the team was not going to participate on the deadline.
“We told them that it wouldn’t be possible for us to play at U-16, because we do not have enough players,” Wilkin said.
Earlier this month, the General Secretary had revealed that the team would be one of 12 participating in the regional competition, thus marking the Federation’s return to regional competition in all forms.
The St. Kitts and Nevis Basketball Association had instead decided that they would develop the players with the hope of participating in the Junior OECS Championship, according to Wilkin.
The Caribbean Basketball Championship U-16 Tournament gets underway from July 3 with 10 male and seven females teams participating.
Pool A of the draw will see British Virgin Island, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominican Republic and Antigua locking horns; while the host country will battle against Aruba, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica in Pool B.
On the distaff side, Antigua, Barbados and British Virgin Island are in pool A, while Guyana, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname are in Pool B.
The host nation had the opportunity to choose the Pool within which they wanted to be placed.
