Basketball association may hire outside coach

The Antigua and Barbuda Basketball Assoc-iation (ABBA) may be forced to employ the services of a foreign coach.
This is according to President Daryll Matthew, who said that of the six applications they have received thus far for the vacant position, all have come from outside of the country.
“We advertised for a head coach for about three months following the resignation of the former coaching staff after Panama last year. Sadly, we haven’t received any applications from any local coaches but we received quite a few applications from coaches abroad. But that now becomes an issue of funds and all those sort of things and so we are, as an executive, going to revisit it and come to a decision shortly,” he said. 
The association, the president added, is looking at the possibilities and the availability of funding for the hiring of technical assistance should they need to go that route.
“Just this week, I had a discussion with the president [of the NOC, EP Chet Greene] and on Friday I had a discussion with the general secretary [of the NOC, Cliff Williams] to see what opportunities there may be for funding from the international bodies for a coach’s grant of some sort and so it’s something that is being explored,” Matthew said.
“I know persons don’t like sometimes when you bring in a coach from overseas and they argue that we have so many coaches here but when we advertise the position for three months and nobody applies, I don’t know what choice we have and so I am just hoping that the general public and the sporting fraternity, in general, understands that this is the reality we are dealing with,” he added.
The association has received applications from the Bahamas, Trinidad, Spain and the USA, thus far.
The position was left vacant following the resignations of head coach George Hughes and assistant Bradbury Browne following the team’s winless run in
the 2016 Centrobasket Championships in Panama.