Players remain suspended
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - FOLLOWING a six-month contention in the local basketball arena surrounding the suspension of several players from the Sandy Point PRIDE Basketball Club, the issue has somewhat been resolved.
As was reported by SKNVibes last October, four players were suspended from the St. Kitts-Nevis Amateur Basketball Association (SKNABA) for allegedly verbally abusing a referee while they were in the stands during a Junior League game played at Basketball City on Wednesday, June 29, 2016.
The Club’s Team Manager, Randy De Suza, however had a different view to the issue.
“On the day in question, members of Sandy Point PRIDE were seated in the stands in support of the Sandy Point Falcons (junior team). Apparently, there was a dispute amongst the juniors, and in the absence of any security personnel at the complex, many spectators, including a number of senior members from Sandy Point PRIDE and other clubs, proceeded onto the court to help restore order and safeguard the youth players.
“Our members were there to assist in quelling the dispute. However, the referee had lodged a complaint to the Games Commissioner, Harold Wharton, against four of our members and on Sunday, July 3 we were notified that they were suspended.”
However, the player's’ suspension had opened ‘a can of worms’ involving the structure of the Association, because the referee had lodged that complaint with the Games Commissioner, Wharton, who had submitted the report to himself and arbitrarily made a determined ruling to have the players suspended, according to De Suza.
During an interview with SKNVibes Sports back in October, General Secretary of the SKABA, Wallis Wilkin had indicated that the players whose names were not given had appealed their suspension.
Giving an update in a recent interview, Wilkin said: “Another situation arose where these players played in a match and the opposing team protested the game. Note, this was a match to determine who goes to the finals. After the opposing team protested, there again rose another problem because the captain and manager of the opposing team is also the Games Commissioner, who was essentially involved in dealing with those matters.”
Further, the GS pointed out that “obviously the Sandy Point PRIDE had an issue with that. Even before that though, it took a long period before they were officially notified that there was a protest filed. For the record, I was not aware that there was a protest filed until long after”.
Scheduled for the end of November for a decision on the appeal, Wilkin pointed out that the Committee returned with an “upheld” decision for the players’ suspension.
“They did come to a decision. The decision was then appealed and the Appeals Committee met and basically upheld the decision.”
According to the General Secretary, a recommendation was passed on to the executive body to have a meeting with the two teams to have problem resolved, but since then nothing has been done.
“The holdup with that though is that the Appeals Committee promised to provide a report on their findings, and once we get that report we would have this meeting, present the report and hopefully the matter would be resolved.”
The suspended players were from the Second Division of the league or A Division, and that competition has been put on hold until the issue is resolved.
