World Student Games - An opportunity missed

The World Student Games start in Belgrade in less than a months time but Britain have only entered a Women's team in the Basketball competition.

Some commentators have suggested that as the Men's U20 European Championships are also taking place in Macedonia in July, BPB opted for that event ahead of the Universiade. That seems a strange explanation given that most of the players who'd have been likely to represent GB in Belgrade are over that age bracket.

Taking a look at the GB Men's squad the likes of Eric Boateng, Matthew Bryan-Amaning, Justin Robinson and Randall Hanke would all have been eligible for selection. Indeed, as athletes can still represent our University national team even if they graduated in 2008 Keiron Achara, Dzaflo Larkai and Tafari Toney could also have suited up.

With Chris Finch now done with his club commitments (Mons were swept in the Belgian League Finals, losing Game 3 on Friday) he could have taken this group of players plus the likes of Ben Eaves, Paul Guede, Matt Guymon and Shane Walker to Serbia and seen how they came up to scratch in international tournament conditions.

As Toney recently admitted in an interview with the BBC he is not expecting to make the final roster this time around, so when and where does he get the chance to gain international playing experience?

See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/basketball/8072737.stm

The gap between U20s and the GB Senior team is likely to become increasingly big as we head up the rankings and other than perhaps playing for England or Scotland in the Commonwealth Basketball Championships (first event in Bangalore in 2010) young fringe players over 20 will have few opportunities to play.

It has to be concluded that declining to participate in Belgrade is a short-sighted decision, especially given the increased funds that BPB now has at its disposal.