… Hinds pleased with teams’ performance at CBC

While the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) wrapped up their Men’s and Women’s Championship, the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation’s (GABF) headache has only now begun. 
Behind president Nigel Hinds, Guyana was able to send both a male and female team to the July 1-12 event which was staged in the British province of Tortola.
While captain Rawle Marshall was inspirational in the men’s team, finishing a comfortable fifth place, it was the complete opposite for the women’s team who were virtually the tournament’s whipping girls as they finished at the bottom of the eight-team tournament.
However, on the bright side, the GABF had smooth sailing from the women while, according to Hinds, the Federation “was faced with a revolt against management” from the men, due to unavailability of stipends.
“All CBC teams to the best of my knowledge received stipends from their Federation, except Guyana, for our men’s team, it created great disquiet. Aristotle said: “Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime”. I think this is a very apt quote in terms of what occurred off court with our men’s team. GABF management was faced with a revolt against management, by players who were told no stipend was available before they left Guyana,” Hinds said.
Chronicle Sport was in receipt of a string of emails, mostly from the GABF which spoke of the conduct of the men’s basketball team who had revolted for some form of stipend.
He pointed out that the Guyana women’s team too did not receive any stipends but their full complement of uniforms and warm-up tops were returned, while the men bluntly refused to hand over their gear.
Nonetheless, Hinds said that overall, the GABF “is pleased to have had both teams at the CBC Championships. As Dr Luncheon asked me during our drive for funding, ‘Is the problem insurmountable’? And my answer was No. We have to deal condignly with the conduct of our men’s team”
“We Guyanese who were once Caribbean leaders in the sixties and early seventies, and even now – when Guyana has recorded its eighth consecutive year of economic growth in 2013, yet our Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport did not provide any financial support to the GABF for the pinnacle basketball event in the Caribbean.”
According to Hinds, “The largest donor for teams like Jamaica and Trinidad, based on my discussions with the principals of these teams was their Ministry of Sports. Discussions with third parties indicated that the Sports Ministry played a major role in funding all the National teams, from 35% to 80%. The point made recently in Guyana by Ato Boldon, the great Trinidadian, Caribbean and World Sprinter, and now Sports Analyst, that Guyana needs to develop a culture for Sports is spot on.”
The biggest challenge the GABF had was funding the teams, where approximately G$12M was needed and the former National player-turned-basketball president said, “This is why we need to ensure that government policy encompasses the funding of Sports Federations to participate in major events and Federations should receive an annual subvention through the National Budget Process.”
He added “As much as corporate Guyana, Office of the President, and individuals both in Guyana and the Guyanese Diaspora contributed, executives and the likes of Patrick Haynes had to dig deep into their own pockets and also incur personal debt to fill the financial gap and make it possible for Guyana to have Men’s and Women’s Teams participate at the 2014 CBC Championships.
In terms of what’s next, the GABF president claimed the need to have an Extraordinary Congress to address the challenges ahead, further adding, “What I can say with certainty is that both Guyana Men’s and Women’s teams will be attending the 2015 CBC Championships scheduled once again for Tortola, British Virgin Islands, where we intend to see the Golden Arrowhead fly proudly once again at the Championships.”

(By Rawle Toney)