Focus on SI Games

QUALIFYING for the 2023 Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands, is the immediate focus for the Basketball Federation of Papua New Guinea’s newly-elected executives, says an official.
New president Karo Lelai, who replaced Nick Daroa, wasted no time in putting her foot down as she called on all affiliates to work together moving forward.
Coincidently, Lelai and Daroa were voted in as executives in 2012.
Lelai said basketball was the only Games sport for which PNG needed to qualify via a tournament.
She said qualification would start with next year’s Melanesian Cup in Fiji.
“We have already asked the PNG Olympic Committee (PNGOC) for support to get our teams to Fiji,” she said.
“We were scheduled to host the regional U15 tournament in December but it was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Lelai said the federation had sent teams to all junior tournaments or camps since 2012.
The latest was the Under-17 skills tournament in Port Moresby where the national teams finished in the top-four.
Lelai said her long-term goal is to initiate a semi-professional competition for basketball. “The federation will be riding on the football ideology (Kumul Petroleum National Soccer League) to initiate a semi-professional competition for men and women,” the new president said.
“But it depends on people working together to achieve the goal.
“Not everyone will succeed in education so semi-professional basketball will provide alternate opportunities for youngster to earn a living.
“Semi-professional basketball would make it easy for us to select players for our representative teams.”
Lelai said another goal for the federation was to ensure financial independence.