With the lack of officials in Guyana being the chief motivator, the Guyana Basketball Federation (GBF) is set to host a training programme to cater to referees, commissioners and table officials. It is set for the National Gymnasium on Mandela Avenue in Georgetown, and would likely widen the pool of officials in the country.
The programme comes with different age eligibilities for the varying formats; as, in the 5X5 format, participants can be from 25 – 35 years old, and in the 3X3 format, ages can be from 21 – 40 years despite the format Official’s retire at the age of 55.
Organizers of the event, while speaking to this publication, indicated that the programme is likely to commence on April 18th, but dates are tentative and are subject to change with the arrival of overseas officials on local shores.
In a comment made exclusively to Guyana Times Sport, President of the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA), Jermaine Slater, expounded on the need for a larger pool of referees with the number of games expected to be rolled out.
“It is going to help the basketball fraternity on the whole, as in at the associations with the increased number of games that we are trying to push. The fact that we are short on staff, if we want to effectively keep tournaments promptly, we can’t be dependent on the same people even though they are willing so we have to get a larger pool of persons we can choose from for us to increase the number of basketballs being played each year.”
He went on to explain that this training program will help officials already within the sport to get acquainted with updated rules that FIBA has approved.
