By Momodou Jarju
The Secretary General of The Gambia Basketball Association (GBA) Alieu Nyang has detailed some of the efforts they are doing in terms of referee training to raise the level of the game in the country during an interview with this medium.
The GBA in collaboration with the International Federation of Basketball Associations (FIBA) recently organised a three-day FIBA level 1 referee training course for 13 participants held at the YMCA Hall along the MDI road under the instruction of Mr Iddrisu Gamel Ayambire from Ghana.
This medium contacted SG Nyang to shine a light on the importance of the international training which he said cannot be overstated as it proffered valuable knowledge and skills to the referees.
“First of all, the referees are the direct administrators of the game. And if the administrator does not have the capacity to administer the game, obviously the quality of the game is going to be affected. So raising the capacity of the referees is very essential to make sure that we raise the level of basketball within the Gambia,” he said.
Nyang said equipping the referees is vital to the growth of the leagues, academy tournaments, amateur basketball, as well as elite basketball in the country. He said this is so that once an example of what an elite referee should be is seen, it will filter down.
“People will now understand the standards and the requirements and the protocols that are required in order to administer a game when they have people in the country who are administering the game at a very high level,” he said.
Sport development, he said, is another reason for building the capacity of referees. The Gambia has one White Licence holder—that’s an internationally registered referee of the FIBA Game Officials Licensing who officiates “all junior level games at regional level; all senior and junior level games at sub-regional level, all senior and junior level games of international preparation/friendly games”.
“But we want more. The more you have out there, the more you are going to have international representation within basketball, especially in the annals of refereeing,” he said.
Nyang praised the Ghanaian instructor Mr. Iddrisu on his performance especially the way he engaged with the participants to ensure everybody was learning and understanding rather than everybody just come, participate, and leave without grasping the skills conveyed.
The basketball administrator also said they feel that the number of referees they have at the moment is small which is why they are making efforts to increase it.
“The numbers have been growing over the past three years, but it’s still not yet quite where we are fully comfortable with. So this type of training, which will then further increase the numbers, helps us a lot because one of the aims that we have is to decentralise the game. And if you don’t have enough referees that you can send out into the communities, then it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to decentralise the game because no matter what, you don’t want to water down the quality,” he explained.
A similar training happened last year where 12 Gambian basketball referees took part in a 5-day FIBA level one referee training course. When asked about the impact it had, Secretary Nyang said though their referees are young and inexperienced, they’ve utilised the knowledge again last year.
“There’s definitely a need for more training, mainly, if not just to raise the profile of basketball, but because we just do not have enough referees currently and we need to increase the numbers. And we will continue to push and make sure that training paths are made available for participants and also to find participants who are interested in refereeing in basketball,” he said.
