BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE regulations of the LIME St. Kitts Amateur Basketball Association (SKABA) League continue to be enforced stringently as three more players were given suspensions for behaviour unbecoming of the association.
The 2010 season’s first suspension was carried out on Rams Hitters guard Ansel ‘Bonzi’ Revan last week after he shoved a referee at a game on Wednesday (Apr. 28) while participating in the Challengers Community League. Revan received a two-year suspension for his behaviour.
Following out of the same incident, a two-game suspension was given to Clevorn Douglas of the St. Pauls Hard Wine Tuff Knots.
According to a letter sent to St. Pauls Captain Narren Maynard by the SKABA Games Committee, Douglas “verbally abused” referee Rolston Richards after he called off Wednesday’s game as a result of being attacked by Revan.
The Games Committee stated that Douglas’ action was in direct violation of SKABA regulations article #3 subsection (i) and he would subsequently be suspended for two games.
Suspensions of an indeterminate length were also dished out to Trinity Exodus’ Alvin Nias and Village Tickers’ Daren Richards pending further review by the Disciplinary Committee.
According to letters that were sent to the Head Coaches of Exodus and Tickers, Jaime Harrigan and Sylvester Francis respectively, both men were seen by “members of the Games Committee, other players and also spectators” to be smoking a substance believed to be marijuana while in their respective team uniforms.
Both Nias and Richards were seen smoking the suspected marijuana on April 27 at Basketball City as they waited for their respective games to begin that evening. Both players have been suspended pending further action by SKABA or the Disciplinary Committee for using an illegal substance during SKABA activities, the letters state.
Each of the four suspensions handed out this week are likely to be subject to further review and are said to reflect the new “zero tolerance” policy of the SKABA executive as they continue to work toward raising the standard of basketball in St. Kitts-Nevis.
