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General Council sent Hamid to CBC meeting
LABA President says he was not handpicked
Trevor Rose
By Edison Jefford
Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) President, Abdulla Hamid said he was not handpicked for the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Executive Meeting as was suggested in some quarters following his attendance.
Hamid and Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) President, David Patterson had attended the CBC meeting earlier this month, creating much speculation that it was a move perpetrated to garner pre-election support.
Eyebrows were further raised when Hamid publicly stated his support for Patterson upon his return to Guyana from the British Virgin Islands. The Georgetown affiliate had taken a somewhat opposing stance with Patterson.
However, the support or lack thereof for Patterson became moot on Sunday when he won the GABF Presidency in an emphatic manner. But Hamid wants to clarify that there were no lobbying on Patterson’s part for his support.
“The General Council decided for me to go (to the meeting). I was not handpicked. They had met to decide when will be the elections and after it was brought up, the Council said I must go,” Hamid told Kaieteur Sport in Linden yesterday.
Abdulla Hamid
Reputable former local sports writer, Duane Fowler captured the concerns of many other basketball enthusiasts in a letter to Kaieteur Sport that appeared last Sunday. The concern was the expressed support for Patterson from Hamid.
“It also should not escape anyone’s notice that LABA President, Abdulla ‘Zico’ Hamid has thrown his weight behind Patterson given that the two recently travelled to the Caribbean Federation’s meeting…” Fowler’s letter said. “Whether Rose was invited or not to accompany these two to that meeting was never stated in the media but it certainly appears convenient that Hamid gave his association’s support to Patterson following the trip,” the letter continued.
The LABA Head, however, was intent on making it clear that the CBC trip had nothing to do with his support for Patterson and secondly, Georgetown sub-association President, Trevor Rose was also nominated to attend the meeting.
“Patterson did not pick me (for the meeting). The Council did,” Hamid said, adding that Rose was also nominated to attend the meeting with him, but declined because he had to go to Trinidad and Tobago around the same time.
David Patterson
According to Hamid, Rose even explored the option of travelling to BVI from Trinidad, but apparently that did not work out well logistically. He said that GABF Vice-President, Floyd Levi made the nominations at the Council level.
“Levi put me up along with Trevor and Ian Andrews. Then Patterson said he will go. The General Council sent me… nobody can’t buy my vote,” and adamant Hamid stressed his point. He wanted to exonerate the LABA from such criticisms. “I want the entire public to know that I was never handpicked or bought,” he reiterated at a brief meeting with this writer yesterday. The National Federation has since put together one of its best Executive teams with Patterson at the helm.
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