A basketball row brewing on admission of services

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32379, 19 August 1970, Page 11

A basketball row brewing on admission of services

(By

R. O. DEW)

’J'HE decision of the New Zealand Men’s Basket ball Association's management committee to admit the New Zealand services’ team to the national invitation tournament at Invercargill at the end of this month came as a major surprise to most followers of the sport There has, understandably, been widespread opposition to the move be cause of its far reaching implications and it is dear that the national administrators in Wellington are In for a fairly rough time when the next annual conference ol the association is held. When the management committee originally decided to permit the services to enter a team it gave them first choice of players. This evoked such an angry response from provincial associations that it was forced to change its mind and now it is the player who has to decide which team he wants to play for. This of course places the players affected in an invidious position. They have to decide between letting their provincial side down or annoying their employers. It is fairly obvious which course most will take and equally obvious that provincial basketball, one oi the foundations of the sporl in New Zealand, must suffer Only a handful of toj players are affected by ths

r requirements of the New > Zealand Services' team this h year and playing strengths e of provincial sides will not i be greatly weakened. How--1 ever, the acceptance of the 1 services’ team is only the i thin edge of a very solid b wedge which might well b split the present inter-pro-vincial basketball system I- asunder. J The New Zealand Univer- *■ sities have been agitating J for some time to gain entry ’ for the national tournament ® and with the acceptance of

1 the services’ team it is diffis cult to see how they can be a refused in future. Then t there is the Y.M.C.A. to conJ sider. It, too, is quite cap- . able of fielding a national p side and seeking admission e and clubs will be encouraged

to link up nationally and select their own team. If the universities are admitted, it will be hardly worth the expense for the big provincial sides such as Auckland, Wellington, Pal merston North, Canterbury and Otago to continue with the tournament Canterbury for example, would stand tc lose five of its best players —J. Culliford, P. Stigley, K Hessell, T. Guthrie and J Fairweather. R. Millard, 1 police officer, has decided tc remain loyal to the Canter bury team this time but ht could conceivably be re quired by the services!' team in future. “We are not going tc strengthen basketball by weakening the top teams,’ the Canterbury selector coach (Mr G. D. Dempsey) commented. He describee the decision to include the services as ‘‘ridiculous.’

“The smaller associations will be thrilled—it will cut the big fellow down to size —but is this achieving anything? I don’t think it is,” he said. If the national invitation tournament was to become a contest for national services and university sides and below-strength provincial teams, the ooty thing left for top provinces to aim for was the Rothmans championship, Mr Dempsey said. Unfortunately, only one team could qualify from the South Island and Canterbury had not competed in it for three years. The quali- > fying tournament was held in May and for the teams * which failed to win, there I would be nothing left to s train for. s The South Island vice- ■ president of the New Zea--1 land association (Mr M. A. i Henshall) also voiced his . concern at the decision. “In j New Zealand the strength of s basketball revolves around ; dtetric associations. If we . are going to undermine them i we are going to weaken the 3 whole set-up." He said that the managet ment committee had mis- - interpreted the feelings of 1 the last annual conference, which had instructed the committee to endeavour to } obtain 12 teams for the f national tournament The conference had never in- '* tended that the services be ) admitted. Such a move was 1 against the administration’s e regulations, Mr Henshall ” said. '