FIBA to plan development strategy for GABF

By Treiston Joseph

The International Basketball Federation (FIBA), after an assessment of Guyana’s basketball landscape, will devise a strategic plan for the development of the local product in accordance with its vision for the sport that is now beginning to mutate into a worldwide sport.

Executive Director Assistant of FIBA, Victor Mansure, who is currently on a visit to the Land of Many Waters, made it clear the intention of the visit, which is to compile for FIBA a report of Guyana’s basketball landscape.

“In the FIBA Congress in May, (we) will start establishing workshops, start establishing an individual plan for each country so expect FIBA to submit to Guyana in the next couple of months a developmental plan based on the priorities that we would see that should be worked on from this visit; that is the whole purpose of this,” Mansure stated.

In addition, Mansure pointed out that the impetus of FIBA’s interest in providing a development plan for Guyana is because of the fact that changes have been instituted to the way in which competitions in FIBA basketball will occur and such a road map will not be just for Guyana alone, but also to all territories under FIBA’s stewardship.

“So FIBA was doing some studies and they studied soccer, some golf, volleyball; they studied other international federations and they decided that the system we have now don’t allow the players to be active to what we would like to be; for example when was the last time the Guyana senior team played an official game at home? So something was missing and we decided to change that.

“So rather than playing tournaments in the summer we will play a home and away system so they are going to be windows similar to what soccer has so that teams could qualify for the next FIBA World Cup in 2019,” Mansure noted.

However, with any sort of plan for development comes the need for funding and Mansure shared that with the possibility of the competition changes bringing in global branding and funding, the hope is for FIBA to grow into a federation such a FIFA, which would then let the association fund its territorial federations.

Mansure admitted that while the process is now in its infancy stage the aim is to be patient and allow it to manifest in a few years time. Mansure will be visiting all stakeholders in basketball and will be making trips to Linden and Berbice before leaving Guyana on Friday.