Dear Editor,

RECENT articles appearing in the Kaieteur News (August 28; October 8 and 9) suggest that the President of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF), Nigel Hinds, who is also Chairman of the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), leveraged his positions to obtain sponsorship for the Guyana U15 Basketball Team from New GPC Inc. in return for granting favours to the New GPC parent company, Queens Atlantic Investments Incorporated (QAII).As Manager of the Guyana Under-15 Basketball Team, which recently participated in the Centrobasket U15 Championship for Men in Patillas, Puerto Rico from August 24-28, I wish to provide some context on the funding received by the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) for the team’s participation in the aforementioned championship.

The primary sponsor of the Guyana Under-15 Basketball Team to Centrobasket was New GPC; that company donated $1.5M towards participation of the Guyana U15 Team in the tournament. The major media outlets: Stabroek News, Kaieteur News, Guyana Times and Guyana Chronicle, all received the GABF press release and published articles on Sunday, August 21, 2016 announcing Guyana’s participation in the CentroBasket U15 Championship, with at least two of the media outlets including the fact that New GPC was the flagship sponsor.

The Under-15 Centrobasket Championship came quickly on the heels of Guyana’s hosting of the CBC U16 Championships.
Without the New GPC’s sponsorship coming when it did, Guyana would not have participated in U15 Centrobasket.

After the Government of Guyana contributed $40M towards Guyana hosting the Caribbean Basketball Confederation U16 Championships for Young Men and Young Women, Mr. Nigel Hinds, President of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation, took a firm stand that no outreach for donation should be made to the Government of Guyana for the U15 tour, as it would be asking for too much in such a short time.

I promised the president of the federation that funds would be sourced only from the private sector.

As Chairman of the Local Organising Committee for the Caribbean Basketball Confederation U16 Championships for Men and Women, hosted by Guyana in July, I had approached New GPC in June 2016 for basketball sponsorship. However, with the CPL taking place, the donation was deferred and a commitment of $1.5M was made by NGPC just prior to Guyana departing for Puerto Rico on August 21, 2016.

New GPC has, over the years, supported cricket and many other sport disciplines, including football, badminton and bodybuilding, to name a few. So the financial support provided by New GPC was no surprise to me.

Also, I have a longstanding relationship with the principal of New GPC.

The U15 Championships was the first time that a Guyana youth basketball team competed on United States’ soil, and represented a major move forward for basketball development and enthusiasm for Guyanese youths to play basketball. Twelve US visas were obtained for members of the touring party that participated in the CentroBasket games in Puerto Rico.

Finally, the initial communication received from the Vice-President of Caribbean Basketball Confederation was that airfare would be fully covered by FIBA for teams attending CentroBasket. Unfortunately, the reality was that participating teams had to source funds for airfare.
Regards,
ALEX GRAHAM
Manager, Guyana U15 Team – 2016