Long-awaited LABA AGM set for Sunday
Known around the basketball arena as ‘Zico’, Abdullah Hamid will be running for President of the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) when it holds its Annual General Meeting at the McKenzie Sports Club on Sunday.
Speaking exclusively on Tuesday to Stabroek Sport Hamid was upbeat about his plans for the sport and intends to pay great emphasis to the youths and community development along with ensuring that clubs are properly structured and insured.
Hamid has been a prominent figure in the sport over the past 20-odd years and has also represented Guyana both on and off the court, since he is a former national player and at present is the national female coach and one of two coaches in Guyana with a FIBA licence. Bobby Cadogan is the other.
An active player with Kashif and Shanghai Kings, Hamid said that once he takes office he would resign from the sport and sever ties with his club since he has learnt some valuable lessons from his predecessors who were still active members of clubs while the other clubs felt that this should not be since the president’s club is likely to be specially favoured in decision making.
“I don’t want any club to say that because I play for Kings I would bend things in their favour so I think it’s the best thing if I walk away from the sport and focus on getting things back to where they used to be or even better. I think we can do it,” he said. He noted also that he has already a full slate of persons in the community who would take the other executive spots.
Asked about the feedback from the clubs in Linden about him becoming President of the LABA, he said, “Well you are never liked by everyone, but I’ve gotten certain responses from like 75-80% of the clubs and that’s good enough for me.”
“Everyone knows that I’ve been in the background of several other associations and also I have the passion for the sport just like them so they say, why not give this guy a chance, maybe he can bring change.”
The LABA league which had started since last year September is yet to be completed and this Hamid said is a major setback in terms of the new association’s mandate to make things run smoothly. However, he made it clear that the outgoing association will have to iron out that end and the clubs will have to understand the situation.
At present the most frequently used venue for basketball in Linden is the McKenzie Sports Club (MSC) hard court and this Hamid said has been a contributing factor in the LABA not being able to run some of their programmes on time because they do not have 100% access to the facility.
But to combat this, Hamid stated that they would seek the use of the Retrieve hard court and would seek to renovate the venue while another option is to inquire about a piece of land from the Regional Office and go after funding to get their own venue.
Another sore point in the sport throughout the country is the absence of capable officials and referees and ‘Zico’ said he would seek to establish a committee that would deal directly with this aspect of the sport. He would also make more use of Guyana’s lone FIBA-accredited referee in terms of getting the other officials up to speed.
Also among his plans is a proposal to form a coaches association arm in the LABA: “This idea is to give other young coaches the exposure to competitions out of Linden, for example whenever a Linden team surfaces, you always hear about ‘Zico’ and Raphael Damon but with this I believe it would see more coaches coming on board as well.”
“I want to restructure the sport and have basketball played at all levels,” said Hamid as he mentioned that at present most of the attention is placed on the more senior players while the juniors are being deprived in showcasing their talent.
Apart from his foundation and the Victory Valley Basketball Club which stages their annual school basketball tournament, there is no other avenue for the youths to expose their talent unless they are extremely talented to play with the first division players.
It is not known if Hamid, who is at present the organizing secretary of the LABA, would have any opposition at the AGM or if the serving President Uborn Smith would be seeking re-election.
