FORMER President of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) Nigel Hinds, is calling on the business community in Linden to support sports.
The former GABA head spoke of his relationship with the mining community through sports, at the conclusion of the recent Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) Senior League Championship final which his company, the Nigel Hinds Financial Services Group, bankrolled.
Hinds, a past national player who represented Georgetown in many club and inter-association battles against Linden sides, had fond memories of those encounters.
He told those gathered at the final on Saturday night, “We are here to give back to this community which I am very proud of in so many ways. You are the centerpiece of Guyana. I would like to first recognise the winners tonight, Victory Valley Royals. Amelia’s Ward Jets competed and they competed in a way that made for an interesting final; but one must admit that Victory Valley Royals have shown over the years to be the National Club Champions of Guyana. So it will take some more training and some more determination, the things that make you a champion, to dethrone Victory Valley Royals.”
Looking at the kind of corporate support for basketball, Hinds noted, “I must admit what we are hoping for is that we build on this occasion in that Linden will show in many ways that they are the engineers of sports in Guyana. The best athletes have come out of Linden for decades, but yet we don’t have the facilities to support them. And what I would like to do in some way, is to encourage other business people who are from this community to contribute to sports, and so I say thank you and we look forward to this rivalling the best league for basketball in Guyana, and making Linden the heartland of Imhotep for basketball and other areas.
Hinds added, “I would like to thank Dawn Barker, the President of the LABA and her team whom worked so hard to make this tournament possible, including Shana Chester who has come out here many nights and I saw them mopping the tarmac when the rain stood over us.”
Hinds through his financial firm has shown his commitment to the improvement of the game in Linden, having sponsored the first, the U-17 Inter schools’ tournament earlier this year and coming on board with this the second tournament to be played since the LABA elected a new body in February of this year. (Joe Chapman)