TECHNICAL Adviser of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF), Abdullah Hamid, says that “in order to see the Federation being run successfully there needs to have strong sub- associations and because of the lack of strong sub-associations with respect to their duties in their area of control, you find there is nothing much the Federation can do”. Hamid, who is also president of the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA), feels that the associations need to be better organised. Apart from the Georgetown and Linden associations, the East Bank should be allowed to develop and others in New Amsterdam and Bartica need to be established.
If this is achieved, Hamid says, the Federation would become strong, because the Federation is basically to just promote International Tournaments, National Tournaments such as inter-club and inter sub-association, and that is basically about four to five tournaments a year.
He felt that because the sub-associations are not so strong and committed to their area, you find that the there isn’t much the Federation can do which would reflect as if it is not functioning. 
Hamid said: “But what I know is that come 2011 the Federation will be looking at making sub-associations pretty much functioning properly and failing to do so means that the particular sub-association would not be recognised by the Federation.
“FIBA and COPABA are looking forward to bringing the level of basketball in the Caribbean to the next level where it could be recognised at a bigger level.
“When it is said and done, without sub-associations there is no Federation and without clubs there is no sub-association. I think that we need to find a way to stop promoters coming and monopolising basketball and taking the wealth away from it and basketball of itself is not benefiting. I think the Federation should clamp down on this.”
“We are looking to put forward a proposal where we will be having a season for basketball in Guyana with the Federation’s season set to start in June and run until September, so all sub-associations will now have to put their whole programme from September to next year May.”
This new approach will, according to Hamid, see between September and May all sub-associations playing and completing their tournaments because the Federation will be controlling basketball from June into September – all International tournaments, Junior level, Inter-association junior level, inter-club and the inter-national club championships.
He said once the associations are in place, the Federation will have a duty to go out to the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and its affiliated zone body COPABA, seeking help relating to finances among other things which are available, “but because we don’t have something structured properly and we are always picking at one another we find that we can’t get help.
“We can go forward if we all sit and pool our resources,” noted Hamid.