There is an event going on today at Kampong Ubi Community Centre called the “2010 YOG, National Street Basketball Selection” organised by the Basketball Association of Singapore (BAS).

Youth players under the age of 16 have been told that the event will give them a chance to showcase their skills so that selectors can see if they are good enough to represent Singapore at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games.

That’s all well and good except for the fact that the youth players are signing up as a team of 3 or 4, each of them paying $20 each, for a day of streetball 3-on-3 competition.

So is it a selection trial or a streetball event? On the surface, it seems like it’s both but the name of the event is misleading.

Why do players have to pay to attend selection trials? Is this the norm for all national sports associations for the upcoming Youth Olympic Games?

We’re waiting for a reply from BAS about this matter and when they do, we’ll update this post with their comment.

In the meantime, a reader commented in another post on Red Sports: “Why is there a signing up fee required for selection for the YOG team? This is obviously a rip-off by some organisation to get some revenue.”

Another reader went down to the event today and commented in the Red Sports chatbox: “I feel that today is (sic) a waste of time as I went down to see it but what i see (sic) is not like a selection or trials.”