The men's national basketball team has elected to drop out of the 22nd Central American and Caribbean (CAC) basketball championships that will take place in Veracruz, Mexico.
The team qualified for the games this summer at the Caribbean Basketball Championships (CBC) in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, but elected not to take part in the games due to the absence of a number of key players.
The basketball championships are set to begin on November 24 at the Auditorio Benito Juarez in Veracruz. Unfortunately, the start date comes at a time when all of the collegiate and professional players who are a part of Team Bahamas are in the middle of their respective seasons, and the Bahamas Basketball Federation (BBF) is not in a position to compensate them for the time that they would have missed. The financial issue had been going on for some time leading up to the games, but failure to reach a compromise forced basketball officials to withdraw the team.
Team Bahamas was assigned to group 'A' after the draw that was held on October 9. Other members of the group include Cuba, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.
Bahamas Olympic Committee (BOC) Secretary General Romel Knowles expressed his discontent with the situation and is looking to take steps to make sure that this is not a reoccurring issue.
"We'll sit with them one on one and review their policy, and perhaps have to reset or set a new one when it comes to national team travel," he said. "I think it's fine if the BBF can afford to pay it from their office, but the athletes have to understand that when it's to represent at a higher calling such as The Olympics, or at the CAC level, then they have to relax their demand and really put that aside and represent the country."
Some of the members of the team who were unable to play include Keno Burrows, Mitchell Johnson, Chavano "Buddy" Hield, Bennett Davis and Kadeem Coleby.
Volleyball will now be the sole team sport that The Bahamas will be represented in at the CAC games in Mexico.

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