Slingerz FC harbour ambitions of more glory

Apr 12, 2015 Sports

By Santokie Nagulendran
Last Sunday, in what will surely be known as one of the most famous victories in the

Formed only two years ago, Javed Ali’s club Slingerz FC have rapidly become one of the best teams in Guyana.

history of Guyanese football, Bakewell Slingerz FC, a club founded only two years ago, defeated powerhouse Alpha United in the final of the 25th Kashif and Shanghai tournament. The victory capped a fine few months for the West Demerara side, who a won the Banks Beer Cup in January, and then the Mayors Cup in February, where they defeated Western Tigers 5-0 in a one-sided final. With such success achieved in a small space of time, many football fans are now wondering whether Bakewell Slingerz FC are indeed the best club side in Guyana.
Javed Ali, owner of Bakewell Slingerz, has always had a passion for football in Guyana: “I always used to visit and support local tournaments since the days of Franklin Wilson being President of the West-Demerara Football Association. When Kashif and Shanghai had their big year-end tournaments in Linden, I was always there,” Ali, an Indo-Guyanese Muslim, proudly proclaimed. Indeed, it was the famed K&S tournament that inspired Ali to set-upSlingerz FC: “As I looked around the venue (at K&S) and saw the energy in the crowd and the intensity in the game as both teams searched for a win, I thought to myself why can’t football in Guyana be like this right through the year? Because after that tournament ends football goes dead again until the next year-end tournament and you don’t see that high level of turn out to games, so I thought why not invest in football and get a team to host at least 2 tournaments a year and keep the football playing all along, so in that way players and coaches and everyone else associated with the football will benefit. I see football as a business that has potential in Guyana.”
It was this ability to see potential in Guyanese football that led to Javed Ali launching Slingerz officially in February 2013. “My initial plan and ambition was to help revive interest in football for the people of West-Demerara and East-Bank Essequibo by making it more competitive and allowing both players and coaches to benefit with more exposure to football.”
The club also received support from current National team Coach Jamaal Shabazz, who in turn helped the team recruit star players from the National team. “At the start we already had a few Golden Jaguar players in our team such as Dwayne Jacobs, Ronson Williams and Kester Jacobs, but then we decided to invite Mr Shabazz to see the club and he immediately fell in love with what he saw. He subsequently introduced us to players like Vurlon Mills, Charles Pollard and Colin Nelson,” Ali said.
Vurlon Mills, one of the club’s star players, explained why the team has been so successful: “Slingerz success has to do with the hard work and dedication of both the players and coaching staff that worked with us throughout our existence (such as Gordon Braithwaite and Charles Pollard). Each of the coaches provided a different ingredient to the club, and all we needed was a chef in the form of Javed Ali to complete the pot.”
Mills has credited the team with raising the competiveness of football in Guyana but would like more help: “I think more businesses should come on board in sponsoring teams, because this is the only way the sport can get to a higher level and raise the level of competition. Slingerz FC have shown that there can be more than one dominant team in the country.”
With Mills, Colin Nelson and Joshua Brown all making the National Team for recent International friendlies, the club is certainly benefitting the Golden Jaguars, and even veteran National stars such as Anthony ‘Awo’ Abrams and Devon Millington have reinvigorated their careers at the club, with Millington scoring both the goals in their historic win over Alpha last Sunday.
However, the road hasn’t been smooth for Ali and the club, as he says, “There were instances where comments were made, and we were denied from entering leagues, which almost killed us, as the team was not playing any form of football for around six months, but everybody stuck together, and since the Normalisation Committee have come to power, things have improved for the better.” As an Indo-Guyanese Muslim, Ali has had to overcome obstacles to prosper in a sport which has tended to be dominated by Afro-Guyanese males, but says, “I grew up with the belief to not let comments regarding race or religion keep me from achieving what I want.” Furthermore, Ali wants to encourage more people to enter football: “It’s a great sport! It’s fun, it’s exciting just like cricket ,basketball and most sports, but it’s a great way to get people together and help to keep the youths in the community to stay out of trouble, teaches them discipline to be responsible and to work together as a team to achieve success.”
Ali finished by saying that he has major hopes for his club over the next few years: “Our next objective is for the club to enter our first National League, eventually compete in the CFU Championships, and make Bakewell Slingerz FC one of the best teams in the region!”