Adrian Giddings, secretary of the West Demerara Football Association (WDFA), has thrown his support behind Kashif and Shanghai Co-Director Kashif Muhammad saying that he is the ideal candidate for the vacant and important post of Director of Sport.
This was pronounced during an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport yesterday. According to the former Pouderoyen FC alumni, the long-serving sports administrator would be the perfect individual to sit at the administrative helm of the National Sports Commission due to his managerial quality and experience.
He opined, “I think Kashif Muhammad is the ideal candidate, reason being is that he has been around sport for a very long time, he knows the ins and outs as it relates to managing and getting stuff off the ground. He, along with this friend Aubrey Major, has managed a successful tournament for years. As it relates to his managerial skills, I have no doubt about it. I don’t see or envisage any bias to football that at all, he will most definitely work for the betterment of all sports. I fully throw my support behind him as the ideal candidate.”
Although several other sports enthusiasts and administrators are under consideration for the post, Muhammad is seen as the front runner to replace previous head Christopher Jones at the helm of the organization.
Muhammad is a notable football administrator following successful years as the promoter of the Kashif and Shanghai Yearend Football Championship, an event which was staged for more than 22 consecutive years, following humble beginnings in the mining town of Linden.
According to Giddings, while Muhammad’s forte is football, he envisions and is confident that the experienced administrator will serve all disciplines with equal importance and capacity.
He added, “I don’t think so because he has great managerial skills, being the Director of Sport means that you are basically being a manager. Once you have good managerial skills then you can’t go wrong and I have no doubt in his ability to manage the Sports Commission. I think he is very technical, he is a man on the ground and he knows what is going on. Basically I know him from managing football tournaments but in general, he will be good for sports.”
Giddings added, “If you take a director that has a sports background, his specialty will be that sport, however, here we have a guy that not only played the game but managed the most successful club tournament for 23 consecutive years in Guyana, so in that regard I have no doubt he is the right person for the post and that he will definitely be a good servant to sport. In everything there are naysayers, but once appointed he will prove his doubters wrong.”
Amongst the major tasks that will be on the front burner for the new NSC Director will be the creation and the implementation of a national sports policy. Previous administrators have failed in their capacity to create the policy, which is expected to chart the course in the overall development of local sport.
