Following the granting of approval for the return to the basketball court for the country’s National ‘ballers’, head coach Junior Hercules is looking to bounce-off training on January 23, as Guyana prepare for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Pre-Qualifiers in El Salvador.
The tournament will see Guyana, current holders of the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) title, lacing-up against their regional and South American rivals, in their first step towards qualifying for the FIBA marquee event in Indonesia, Japan and Philippines.
With basketball, like everything else, having to deflate since the advent of COVID-19 last year, Hercules said conditioning of the players will be a priority.
The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Pre-Qualifiers was originally planned for February 17-21, but Patrick Haynes, Secretary of the Central America and Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CONCENCABA) confirmed with Chronicle Sport that the tournament will now be held from April 7 to 11.
Hercules said the new dates will give him enough time to work on the team’s fitness, but stated yesterday, that the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall will be ready for use by the weekend.
Promitheas Patras Centre player Delroy James was named in the 13-player shortlist, which also includes Stanton Rose, Kevon Wiggins, Anthony Moe, Ray Victor, Shaine Webster, Timothy Thompson, Akeem Crandon, Travis Belgrave, Nikkoloi Smith, Travis Burnett, Yannick Tappin and Terron Welch.
James, 33, plays professionally in Greece and was set to represent Guyana in 2019, at the FIBA AmeriCup 2021 pre-qualifiers, in Colombia, but his Guyanese passport could not have been renewed in time.
This time around, however, Hercules is confident of having the full complement of overseas players, and told Chronicle Sport that “all the players overseas are ready and waiting on a confirmed time and so on and we’ll take it from there.”
Speaking on other interests from overseas-based players, Hercules said the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) received a number of applications and videos of players and would be looking at them as on a ‘needs basis’.
Asked about team selection, and how the players were able to merit a call-up to the squad, Hercules pointed to the players’ past performances, since no basketball was played since last year.
