Suspended! Leagues declare war on indiscipline

Amid plans to make each disciplinary action applicable across all basketball leagues in the territory, President of the BVI Basketball Federation Guy Malone today disclosed that the player involved in a recent fight at a match venue in Road Town has been suspended indefinitely.

He did not name the player at the centre of the physical altercation, which ended up involving at least 10 young men. The fist-fight happened at the Multi-Purpose Sports Complex in Road Town on June 11 when a match was being played.

Malone noted that, following subsequent investigations, he realized that the basketball player who was involved in the fight was suspended previously from the Julian Fraser Save the Seed National Basketball League in Sea Cow’s Bay.

Malone, who was speaking today during the launch of Fraser’s league in Sea Cows Bay, said the player would not have been allowed to participate in the Road Town competition, if it had been known that he was suspended from the Sea Cows Bay league.

In response to that oversight, Malone proposed that the different basketball leagues should work towards greater communication and collaboration.

He explained: “We had an incident on opening night [of the basketball league in Road Town], and it’s after that incident I learnt that the player in question was banned from this league [in Sea Cows Bay]. I didn’t know that. If we knew that, then he wouldn’t have been allowed to play [in the Road Town league].”

“So we sent a strong message with respect to what happened (the fight) that he is suspended indefinitely and I hope that..the other leagues will carry on that message,” Malone continued. “Fans come out and they want to be able to be comfortable and they want to enjoy a game. I don’t think that they want to enjoy a fight or any sort of brawl.”

Malone explained why suspension of the basketball player involved in the fight is considered indefinite.

“We make a decision of suspending indefinitely because honestly, as an executive body, we didn’t speak to the Honourable Fraser league management [and] we didn’t speak to Virgin Gorda…”

“With respect to not having a conversation with the other leagues, I made the decision as president to my executive that it’s not fair [to ban] from the other leagues. So let’s suspend indefinitely and, when we meet as a full body, then we put these things in place and we come up with what is best, because a person might be suspended for something a little simpler than a fight. And if you are saying suspension – he can’t play. So we have to weigh the pros and cons on how we move forward and how best we all are in collaboration,” added Malone.

Not in Sea Cows Bay!

Meanwhile, Fraser made it clear that no indiscipline will be tolerated during his league that will run from Saturday (August 19) until November 5.

He added that, from the outset, the management of his league decided it would not accept players suspended by the managements of the basketball leagues in Road Town and Virgin Gorda.

Fraser also suggested that discipline in his league would be easily enforceable, considering that the league is a totally private undertaking, and the venue where it is being held is also privately owned.

“We had set up a rule from inception that, if you are banned or suspended from any of those leagues [in Road Town or Virgin Gorda] you can’t play here [in Sea Cows Bay]. And I won’t expect that any player believes that they gonna come to this facility – and this is an advantage that we have; this is private [facility]. There is no public money going around here.”

“Any player going to believe that they are going to come here [and] disrespect us, well you gonna get suspended. I don’t know if the other leagues are gonna take them up. But, if they go to the other leagues and they behave in a disrespectful manner, they cannot play here [in my league at Sea Cows Bay]. That’s plain and simple,” Fraser declared.