NATIONAL basketballer Adrian Stewart must really be hating mosquitoes.

Set to make his mark with the national team tonight at the Centro Basket tournament in Mexico after a three-year absence, Stewart has been forced to withdraw from the team due to a bout of dengue fever.

The national team left Barbados Sunday night without Stewart, and are scheduled to play Cuba in their first match of the tournament tonight in the mountainous city of Toluca.

"He's really weak right now, and a tournament like this will be very grueling," president of the Barbados Amateur basketball Association, Gay Griffith told NATIONSPORT yesterday.

"We gave him an extra 36 hours to see if he recovered, but he still can't play."

Stewart's replacement is big-man Anderson Straker of the Solar Dynamics Clapham Bulls.

Straker was in the national team in 1999, but was left off last year when Barbados won their second regional championship at home. He arrived in Mexico yesterday evening.

He had an ordinary season in 2001 for the Bulls, and when the play-offs started his game didn't lift much.

The selectors, technical director Nelson Isley and coaches Marc Harding and Barry Rock are obviously looking at size and not talent in choosing Straker for a tournament where big men are a luxury, and the other teams are expected to have plenty of seven-footers on court.

Stewart, one the most exciting swingmen in the local game, made the national team four years ago, but was basically ineffective at the CARICOM Games in Trinidad and Tobago.

He turned his career around the past two seasons, however, joining defending league champions Berger Senators.

Barbados are grouped with Panama, Cuba and the hosts Mexico. If they win two games, they can qualify for next month's Tournament of Americas in Argentina, from which four teams will qualify for next year's Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

Griffith also revealed that things have been a bit rough for the team since their arrival Mexico.

They were only able to practise for the first time yesterday, since arriving on Sunday, and were forced to spend hours at the airport in Toluca, since no officials were there to meet them and organise transport.