Basketball Review: Part I, Linden

Dec 22, 2010 Sports

By Edison Jefford
The basketball schedule in Linden began this year with Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) President, Abdulla ‘Zico’ Hamid announcing his support for the incumbent President of the national federation, David Patterson.
Hamid had expressed his support for Patterson against the background that Patterson had been a serving member of the Godwin McPherson-led Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) and as such, he was most suited for the office.

Abdulla Hamid

Patterson won the national presidency and Hamid moved on with his programme in Linden after he was voted in to lead the Linden sub-association last year. He bounced off two tournaments: an Under-19 and an Under-21 Championships in March.
The following month, two of Linden’s leading basketball-playing wards, Central Mackenzie and Christianburg were invited to compete in the Mackeson National Super Ward Championships, which was held at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
Central Mackenzie competed against Albouystown/Charlestown in the best-of-three final, giving the Linden basketball programme the results it needed although Albouystown won the contest in an emphatic manner to remain unbeaten in Super Ward Finals.
The Victory Valley Royals Basketball Club had also hosted their schools’ tournament in April as the calendar in Linden continued with its Super Eight Senior Basketball tournament in May with Kings, the top team, pocketing $100,000 for winning the event.
Following what one can easily call an active start to the basketball programme in Linden, and the Presidency of Hamid, for varying reasons the sport in the community was plunged into the depth of crisis marked with inactivity and lack of support.
Between June and July there was no basketball in Linden to engage the senior players, who were nonchalant when it was time to select Guyana’s national team for an International Series that was hosted in Guyana in August at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

This is the only development at the MSC Basketball Court in Linden; the Sports Club built this eastern bleacher that was supposed to have met a refurbished surface and other bleachers whose construction works are yet to commence.

The senior players from Linden shunned the GABF tryouts then practice sessions in Georgetown after complaining that they were not getting the support from the federation. The players were of the view that their transportation should have been funded.
Hamid, who is also the GABF Technical Director, had urged National Coach, Robert Cadogan to “do what he has to do” with the team without the inclusion of Linden’s best players. It meant that for the first time in history, Lindeners were omitted from a national team.
But from other investigations, Kaieteur Sport learnt that apart from the transportation issues that the players highlighted, they simply were not playing basketball. Suffice it to say, both Cadogan and Hamid competed against the D.C Jammers without them.
The August fiasco with the Linden basketball players not showing any interest in playing against the D.C Jammers in Guyana’s national team moved into the unbridled situation surrounding what was supposed to have been the construction of the MSC Court.
Except for a new bleacher on the Eastern side of the MSC Basketball Court, which the Club built in September, the much-anticipated resurfacing and renovation of the court has been stalled. The reason that was given is that the contractor paver is “broken-down”.
The situation, therefore, is that from around June to the time this review appears, there has been no competitive basketball in Linden. The dug-up MSC court with its rings removed have stalled the progress of the sport within the Linden community.
The Mackenzie Sports Club court is the main facility in Linden. The unavailability of the venue resulted in the lack of practice for both the junior and senior representative teams from the Town, which slumped to defeats at both levels at the All-Star Weekend.