By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Dandenong Basketball Association has offered to save a long-running national tournament for South Sudanese Australian players.
The upcoming Summer Slam competition was scrapped by the South Sudanese Australian National Basketball Association after being unable to find a welcoming venue in Melbourne.
It follows the SSANBA cancelling its National Classic tournament in July.
The association blamed media-stoked fears of “African youths” that led to venues placing extensive restrictions.
They included self-financing bus-in, bus-out transport for all players, notifying all surrounding residents and tenant groups, a half-day Grand Final day, and plans to avoid a build-up of crowds.
But since the announcement, the SSANBA has been heartened by recent offers to host the tournament.
Dandenong Basketball Association chief executive Graeme Allen said the Stud Road stadium was willing to host it early in 2019.
“We’re probably the most experienced tournament managers and tournament facility in Australia here.
“We’re all about providing opportunity. I’ve expressed my availability to talk with Basketball Victoria and make it happen.
“We live in probably the biggest multicultural city in Australia and we have a significant African and Sudanese community.
“We’re not put off by that at all.”
Recently, the DBA was awarded at the Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce Awards for its inclusivity.
Among its successes are the Black Rhinos and Peregrine Falcons teams for young South Sudanese basketballers.
“Sport at a community level is a fantastic equaliser,” Mr Allen said.
“It’s the crux of what brings people together.”
Dandenong-based Red Roo Basketball teams are past winners at the Summer Slam.
Since the tournament’s axing, a squad of 20 travelled to Adelaide for a “scrimmage game” over the weekend instead.
Director James Kerr, who self-funded the team, said the venue restrictions were “one of the most discriminatory things I’ve seen”.
“It’s not us, it’s the kids not getting the chance to compete.”
Within a few years, the club has grown to 10 teams of talented, winning young players. It has twice won premierships in the Melbourne Metropolitan Basketball League.
Its senior men were undefeated in the recent Twin Cities tournament in Albury, NSW, its Under-18s nearly undefeated in the Southern Peninsula Junior Tournament on the Mornington Peninsula.
“Winning is not an accident,” Mr Kerr said.
“It takes hard, smart work with discipline.”
Bad publicity surfaced after an AirBnB property was trashed during last year’s Summer Slam in Werribee.
At an earlier tournament in Frankston, a man was stabbed in a fight that started at the basketball centre.
In a statement, the SSANBA blamed the situation on “African youth issues that were widely covered in the media”.
“When we got a stadium, unrealistic barriers were put in the way so that the event was not held.
“Stadium managers are afraid to host our event because of the African gang stories they see in the news.
“The actions of a few teenagers in the community are being unfairly used to stereotype the vast majority that are doing the right thing.”
Basketball Victoria described the requirements as “scarcely demanded for other Victorian basketball tournaments and rarely required throughout the entirety of the sporting community”.
