Williams hoping for more development in 2026

While the availability of venues will be one of the biggest challenges, President of the Barbados Amateur Basketball Association (BABA), Francis Williams has revealed that the 2026 season is still on track to bounce off in a few weeks time.

Speaking in an interview with Barbados TODAY, Williams said he was expecting a smooth start to the new season.

“I’m looking forward to another good season and I think we were comfortable that we had a successful one in 2025. We hit most of the major markers that we had in terms of getting the season executed successfully and most importantly, within the timelines we set and within the budgets for doing such. We don’t expect 2026 to be any different.

“Hopefully we’ll have a continued increase in the number of teams participating throughout the competitions, after we showed a little peak in terms of player participation last year, so we hope that will continue, given the challenges with the venues,” Williams said.

“Working around that challenge is, however, nothing new. It’s just that it’s a slightly different battle on our hands this year, but we think we will overcome those and deliver another successful season.

“Right now we are assuming that we will get started by the end of January or early February as usual. It’s just the formatting and stuff that we need to find out based on the availability. Usually the Gymnasium would be the weekday venue and then BCC usually has some restrictions based on classes and what not, so yeah those things we will need to confirm and work around,” he added.

The BABA president also confirmed the return of the Caribbean Basketball Championship for the first time in nearly 10 years, with Barbados set to participate.

“The senior men’s team will be in action from July 1 to 6 during that event, which will be the first CBC since 2018. So we are looking to get back there, especially coming off the success that we had last year, where the senior men beat Costa Rica in the pre-qualifier, which is the highest ranked team that we’ve ever had a victory against. That is the kind of success that we want to build on going into 2026,” he pointed out.

While Williams admitted that financial hurdles continued to be a thorn in the association’s side, he thanked the BABA’s valued partners for their continued support.

He said the unavailability of facilities also continued to be a major issue.

“Sports in Barbados generally is always undercapitalized, but what we try to do is make do what we can with what we have. We have some longtime stakeholders who usually come through for us; we have the Barbados Olympic Association, Cooperators General Insurance, and one or two new sponsors on the low level. 

“I am sure they will continue to support us and we will make do with what we get there, but a lot of the challenge still comes back to the availability of facilities. It’s  hard to plan a year, offer packages or present anything to sponsors, never knowing exactly where you’re gonna be or when you’re going to be,” Williams contended.

“Until that venue situation is solved on a bigger level, I think we will continue to have some of these challenges in terms of finance and the capitalizing of the sport at the level that we would like to.”