The Mildura Basketball Association has acted to ensure its best men's talent will be participating at elite level competition in 2007 by yesterday entering a team in the Big V's men's competition for the coming season.

A long standing member of the Big V, the Association's womens team, the Sunbeams, has recently been promoted to the leagues division one competition and will be joined at the same level by a Mildura men's team.

MBA President Leigh Anderson said continuing doubt over the future of the Mildura Mavericks team in the SEABL competition had forced the Association to act.

"The Big V have been very supportive of us in extending timelines while we waited to see the outcome of the discussions between the Mavericks and the SEABL, however we needed to act now to ensure our elite male players had a competition to participate in for 2007".

The Big V closed entries for 2007 on September 30, but had extended deadlines twice for the MBA, first to November 30, and then to December 20, mirroring other deadlines, as the Association waited to see if the Mavericks would be viable in the SEABL competition.

Anderson said the fixturing of the 100 team strong BigV was being held up by the Mildura situation.

"We had a responsibility to the whole of the league to make a decision so that the league office can get on with planning for the 2007 season." Anderson said. "January 15 was just going to be too late"

The MBA has made a commitment to the league that its team will include one import, ensuring a competitive team in the league's division one competition.

"We can now get on with the business of putting a competitive Mildura team on the floor" said Anderson. "Our first objective will be to secure a Coach, and then playing personnel".

BigV CEO Matthew Cowling said the league had been working closely with the MBA to ensure Mildura was represented in elite men's competition in the future.

"Mildura is a great basketball town" he said, "We've shared the major concern of the MBA, and that is that the town continued to be represented in elite statewide competition and that Mildura's emerging talent has a strong competition to play in".

Mildura formerly played in the BigV's forerunner, the CVIBL, in the early 1990's, winning the CVIBL in 1990. In the early part of this decade the association briefly entered a side featuring young Mildura players and some players from the Mavericks ABA bench.

The Big V season kicks off on March 25.