Coronavirus: CBC Senior Championships officially over

All tournaments planned for this year by the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) have been put off until 2021.

The Guyana senior basketball side that won the CBC Championships

CBC President Glyne Clarke said that the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) has mandated that all championships scheduled for this year be suspended, including those to be hosted by the CBC.
This would include the CBC Senior Championship, which Guyana won in 2018, slated for Paramaribo, Suriname.
The Guyanese were set on defending their title after a three-match prep series against Grenada. However, the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic cancelled all hopes of finding a host country for the regional tournament.
In an interview with Guyana Times Sport, National Basketball Coach Junior Hercules said, “CBC Senior Championship was cancelled; while it is indeed, unfortunately, it does present a unique opportunity for our federation to have a national club championship and also for our overseas-based players’ options to be diverse. My advice to current and aspiring national Players are to ensure you practice the recommended safety measures and work on a lot of strength and healthy personal exercises.”
Once the pandemic has ended, Guyana will be able to participate in the FIBA Americup 2023 qualifying tournament.
Despite no tournament being completed in 2020, FIBA will use current rankings to decide who will represent the Caribbean, as Guyana won the 2018 CBC Championships and placed third in the Americup qualifiers in 2019.
The CBC President has also explained that going forward they would closely monitor what was happening around the world, because they were planning to have those tournaments played sometime next year. However, there were no guarantees that the host countries would be ready.
“We will be monitoring to see how the world is recovering, and it is subject to the governmental restrictions this will have on countries. Even though we may restart, some countries might not be in a position to start as well.
“We are actually in the process of sending out some communication to the member countries, not only to check on their state of readiness, but in terms of being able to play and what the government restrictions are. In terms of financing, as you know many of the Caribbean countries depend heavily on assistance from the Government in their competitions. So, it is how well they are able to recover and to get the funding, both governmental and corporate, to help the teams to compete,” he said.