Corporate leagues are common in sports and basketball is no exception.
The Cayman Islands Basketball Association started its corporate basketball league last week.
Sponsored by the Department of Youth and Sports the league sees 12 teams and 144 players that play six games per week.
The Digicel Court on Eastern Avenue will play host to three games on Mondays and Wednesdays starting at 6:15pm.
The league is split into two pools with six teams each. Pool one plays on Mondays while pool two plays Wednesdays.
Pool one sees Goldman Sachs, Maples and Calder, Maples Finance, Trident Titans, Walkers and Youth and Sports.
Pool two sees Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, DHL, First Caribbean International Bank, KPMG Blue, KPMG Silver and KPMG White.
League games consist of four eight-minute quarters.
Each team must have a minimum of seven players and a maximum of 12 players. Each team is limited to four players that are not from that organization.
Timeliness is stressed for games. As the rules state there is a 15 minute grace period. If a team doesn’t have enough players to begin a game by the end of that period then the team will lose by forfeit.
An emphasis of the league is the inclusion of women. Each team must have at least two females.
During play there must also be at least one female playing on the court at all times, unless the female player(s) have fouled out or are injured.
At that point the team will have to play with four players for the duration of the game.
Unlike in normal basketball action each player has a foul limit of five. When that limit is reached the player has ‘fouled out’, must be substituted and can no longer play for the duration of the game.
The league also hopes to be ultra-competitive. One of the rules in place towards that end is the limitation of national players.
Each team is allowed a maximum of one national male player and two national female players.
According to the league rule book the definition of a national player is one who has represented the country in the recent 2007 Nat West Island Games.
This year the league has seen a surprising amount of local established players sign up. In total there are 50-60 players from the U19, Senior Men’s and Women’s Leagues.
In most cases they are the team leaders for the various squads.
The league’s regular season runs for five weeks until Wednesday 17 December.
At that point there will be a two week holiday break. From there the league playoffs begin.
The playoffs will last 10 days from 5-14 January.
CIBA executive member and Assistant Director of Sports Collin Anglin says the league has been a hit over the years.
‘The growth we’ve seen over the last six years is really positive. The last two years in particular have consistently seen a record-breaking number of teams.
‘Various companies look forward to the league every year as the level of play is semi-competitive. Players enjoy playing and we see them come back every year eager to play.’
Anglin went on to say that though the amount of teams is already set there is still time for persons to sign up to play.
‘At this point it’s too late for new teams but people can still join in. Anyone interested in playing should e-mail me at [email protected].’
To keep track of all hoops action log on to www.caymanbasketball.org and search for the corporate league in the competitions/results section.
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