Suriname b-ballers open TT tour

CARIBBEAN Little Devils, Suriname’s basketball league champs, will play three matches during a week-long tour of Trinidad, starting today. The visit by the Surinamers club is through the efforts of the National Basketball Federation of Trinidad and Tobago (NBFTT), Basketball Worldwide and UWI. The 15-member team will meet Marabella Raptors at the Pleasantville Sports Indoor Facility tomorrow from 8.30 pm, with National Flour Mills (NFM) facing Point Fortin All Stars earlier from 7 pm. All four teams will travel to the St Paul’s Street Multi-Purpose Facility, Port of Spain on Thursday, with Marabella clashing with Point Fortin from 7 pm and the Devils playing Royal Extra North zone champs NFM from 8.30 pm. And the three-match series ends on Friday, with the All Stars hosting the Devils at 8.30 pm at the Southwestern Indoor Sports Facility, Point Fortin while the Raptors and NFM will meet 90 minutes earlier.

Clayton Blackman, president of the NBFTT, said “the initiative signals the intentions of the recently elected executive to revitalise the sport and to promote basketball in an organised manner in keeping with its thrust to ensure participation at all levels.” Coaches will undergo a two-day intensive programme at the UWI Sport and Physical Education Centre, St Augustine. Entitled “Basketball Coaches and Officials Clinic,” the event will take place on August 10 and 11. And up-and-coming basketballers will learn the rudiments of the sport when the Millenium Basketball Academy hosts two training camps, from August 11-15 at the Maloney Indoor Facility, and at the Jean Pierre Sports Complex, Mucurapo from August 18-22.