Hinds is new GABF President - Georgetown, Linden get VP posts

Hinds is new GABF President – Georgetown, Linden get VP posts

Jan 12, 2014 Sports

By Edison Jefford

Former National Basketball Player and Accountant of Hinds and Statia Financial, Nigel Hinds, was elected President of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) yesterday after he defeated Georgetown sub-association President, Michael Singh.
Hinds won with a 9-2 vote, which indicated support from only Georgetown for Singh while the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA), Berbice Association, Women’s Association, Masters’ Association and Guyana Basketball Officials’ Council (GBOC) all voted for Hinds in the landslide victory.
However, Singh amassed the highest number of votes with 12 for one of three Vice-President positions that were contested. Singh, the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) President, is likely to become the First Vice-President with LABA President, Haslyn Graham as Second Vice-President with 10 votes. Kenrick Thomas, who was not present, received seven of the twelve votes for the third Vice-President position.
Dr. Richard Blair was elected General Secretary, while Leona Kyte was elected Assistant Secretary/Treasurer; Cecil Chin was elected Technical Director while Clairmont DeNobrega, who was also absent yesterday, was elected Treasurer.
In his address, Hinds acknowledged that there is a lot of work to be done to resuscitate the sport in Guyana. As such, he said that there will be specific programmes aimed at revitalising the sport ahead of Guyana’s Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championships participation that is scheduled for July 1-12 this year.
“It has been a rough period for the last Executive for a number of reasons. We intend to engage stakeholders on some key areas,” Hinds said, before outlining the rehabilitation of the basketball courts in Georgetown, Linden and Berbice and an aggressive popularisation programme for the sport as high on the agenda for immediate implementation.
In addition, Hinds believes that they can change the financial fortunes of the federation with an overall transparent budgeting and accounting four-year plan. He said that will be aimed at getting the right credibility established among the corporate community.
The new GABF Head also proposed resuscitation of the clubs that are weak and those that have gone out of existence. He said the women component of all clubs must return to full fruition as well so that basketball develops holistically.
“We have to think bigger and envision. We can do this. We have a lot of work to do; we are in a ditch, and it is not that David (Patterson, past GABF President) left us in a ditch, but we have to get out,” Hinds said in his address, adding, “We want to see the Sports Hall full again”.
Hinds said that the GABF Executive will be meeting later this month to detail their programmes for the year. Following his address, LABA Secretary, Joe Chapman indicated across the floor that the “Hinds/Singh combination is great for basketball”.
His statement received loud applause from enthusiast and stakeholders present while Hinds said “I know Michael has done a lot of work in Georgetown”, before GABF Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Elections came to and end at the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) Headquarters in High Street, Kingston.