A DISPUTE over an unsanctioned basketball camp could have serious consequences for St Mary's, Castleisland, whose decision last week to release Benji Tate and Eric Blair, seriously undermined the men's Division One Top Four in Belfast at the weekend.
Castleisland sacked their two Americans because Tate and Blair had organised a basketball camp in the Kerry town without the approval of the club.
The Irish Basketball Association's chief executive, Scott McCarthy, spent much of his time in the days before the Top Four trying to resolve the dispute, but he failed to even get the two parties together.
The result was that St Mary's sent a skeleton squad of just five players to Belfast and they were no match for an under strength Ballina in a near-farcical second semi-final on Saturday.
The IBA regards the dispute as an internal issue in the club and apart from doing their best to act as arbitrators, they do not wish to appear heavy handed in making a drastic intervention.
However, they have expressed some reservations about the effect the dispute had on the Top Four. In particular, the next National Competitions Committee meeting will scrutinise the regulations and decide if the club contravened National League rule 17.9, which reads: "Any club which deliberately fields a weakened team without what the administrators consider a good reason, shall be deemed guilty of misconduct and the subject of disciplinary action."
McCarthy feels that the rule has not been broken, but is still unhappy.
"I think that Castleisland did not do everything in their power to send a strong team to the Top Four. They could have, for instance, re-signed the players for the competition, but they chose not to. However, I do not consider their action a deliberate one, but I think we may have to look at that regulation in the future with a view to removing the word `deliberate' from it," he said yesterday.
McCarthy regrets that a club of Castleisland's quality and stature are embroiled in such a dispute at the end of their first season in the National League.
"I mean, they finished fourth in the table and were challenging for promotion and then this happens. It's an issue we'll have to consider when their application for National League status comes up again in the summer.
Meanwhile, Blair and Tate have moved their camp to nearby Farranfore where they plan to run a children's basketball camp from April 1st-4th.
