League delay lands JaBA boss in hot seat

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

Amid growing uncertainty over the start of the National Basketball League (NBL), Calvin Martin, president of the Southern Conference Basketball Association (SCBA), has called for the resignation of Jamaica Basketball Association (JaBA) president, Ajani Williams.

The NBL, which was scheduled to begin in August, has been postponed on a number of occasions by the JaBA.

"I think we need to find a new president because never in the history of basketball in Jamaica have we ever had our league postponed for so long, and this is very frustrating for all the teams around the league," Martin said.

"I think that the president (Ajani Williams) doesn't care about basketball and the people who play basketball in this country because nobody knows what he is doing about moving this league forward," said Martin.

Very disappointed

Martin added that he received an email two weeks ago from JaBA stating that the league was postponed until further notice. He also mentioned that a meeting that had been scheduled to address the issue last Wednesday had also been postponed.

"I am also very disappointed with the JaBA executive and I believe that they should resign their posts too," Martin said.

The Southern Conference is one of the most powerful basketball associations in the country, as it comprises teams such as NBL defending champions Tivoli Gardens All Stars, Urban Knights, Majesty Gardens, St George's Slayers and Port Royal Bulls.

When contacted, Williams said he would "not comment" on Martin's call for his resignation, but noted that his administration was making every effort to get the league started in January.

"I can understand people's frustration, but we have to negotiate the right way because we can't do a bad contract for the league," Williams said.

"We have the sponsorships and we are now just getting the television partnership sorted out so that the league will be able to begin pretty soon."

Meanwhile, Richard Rowe, manager of last year's beaten finalists, Majesty Gardens, said the constant delay has hurt his team financially, and his players and their supporters were very restless.

"It is frustrating for us seeing that we are seriously in our preparations for the start of the league and we would be playing in the opening game of the competition," said Rowe, who is also the vice-president of the SCBA. "It is also hurting us financially, and because of this we had to reduce our training days from three days per week to two days per week."

Rowe added: "The community members are all waiting for the start of the competition because this is one of the sports that brings this community together all the time."

Ted Marshall, coach of Tivoli Gardens, sided with Rowe and said his team was also hurting from the constant delay.

"Our players and management team are also very frustrated because it takes a lot of money to run our programme, and this is money that we are not going to recover whenever the league starts," said Marshall.

"It has affected us tremendously because we were preparing ourselves to defend our championship, and so this constant delay has impacted on our training programme very badly."