Illicit administration of cricket must come to an end!

Dear Editor,
IT IS a pleasure for me to say that I fully endorse every line of the letter written by Claude Raphael and published in the Stabroek News of 28th January, 2016 under the caption “There must be free and fair elections and proper accountability if order is to return to cricket.”

Like Mr. Raphael, I have been involved in cricket, in Berbice, for 52 years — since 1964. I am thoroughly disgusted with the state of the administration of our beloved game, and yearn for a change for the better.

The illegal Guyana Cricket Board has once again staged an Annual General Meeting — there was no involvement of the Cricket Ombudsman — on January 24, 2016, in contravention of the Cricket Administration Act of 2014. This Act became law in 2014, after it was passed in Parliament and was unanimously supported by the then ruling PPP and leading opposition APNU+AFC political parties. The Guyana Cricket Board has nevertheless continued to flout the law and the will of the people.

In 2010, the Demerara Cricket Board was split into two factions after a dispute involving expenditure on the GCB, and after the Assistant Treasurer of the GCB had acid thrown in his face. They injuncted each other, and the matters are still pending in the Guyana High Court.

Officials of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) decided that they would not be attending meetings of the Guyana Cricket Board unless a forensic audit was done for presentation at the Annual General Meeting in early 2010, and until the factions of the Demerara Cricket Board had come together and held one Annual General Meeting, with both factions fully represented.

This meeting was announced, but unknown to the other faction, the faction now active on the Guyana Cricket Board went ahead with a supposed Annual General Meeting hours earlier than scheduled and at a different venue. This was followed by the supposed AGM of the Guyana Cricket Board without the forensic audit and the legal representation of the Demerara Cricket Board.

Apart from one representative of the Berbice Cricket Board — who was later suspended for one year for breaking ranks, attending that AGM, and voting at the elections – the BCB was not represented. With ten representatives present — nine from Essequibo and one from Berbice — and four short of a quorum of fourteen, those present went ahead and elected office bearers, which included members of the injuncted Demerara Cricket Board.

This trend has continued. It should be noted that this AGM did not have a quorum, to begin with, and should have been postponed.
Its action resulted in an injunction of the GCB by the Secretary of the BCB, which resulted in establishment of the now defunct Interim Management Committee. The matter is still pending in the High Court.

Caricom stepped in on two occasions and held meetings with the WICB, GCB, the stakeholders and the Government of Guyana present. Memorandums of Understanding were drafted by the WICB and sent for signature by all parties. However, because the facts were different from what had been agreed to, the Government of Guyana and the stakeholders could not sign on either occasion.

After twenty hearings with all parties contributing before a Select Parliamentary Committee in 2014, the Government of Guyana drafted and passed the Cricket Administrative Act of 2014.
Because of their disagreement with the Cricket Administration Act of 2014, the GCB injuncted the Government of Guyana, but its injunction was thrown out. It injuncted the Cricket Ombudsman, but its injunction was thrown out. It also injuncted the Attorney General and the Minister of Sports of the previous administration in 2014.

Following the Berbice Cricket Board’s Annual General Meeting of December 2015, when a Guyana Cricket Board-sponsored presidential candidate was defeated, two Berbice clubs, one headed by the defeated presidential candidate and the other headed by the suspended member of 2010, came together and injuncted the executive members of the BCB under the pretext that the clubs of the current and immediate past presidents were not affiliated to the BCB when they voted at the BCB’s December 2014 AGM.

As a result, the BCB Secretary has been ordered to submit monthly reports on the activities of the Board to the court, which has also banned the executives from holding meetings. All of this despite the fact that the clubs involved were admitted to membership of the Berbice Cricket Board. The Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club was admitted to membership in 1992, and the Young Warriors Cricket Club was similarly admitted in 2003.

In August, 2015, the GCB failed to obtain a British visa for the Berbice Under-15 cricketer Kevin Sinclair to tour England with the West Indies Under-15 Team. They gave up on their effort seven days before the other two Guyanese cricketers departed for England. They did not even inform the BCB of his selection.

The GCB discontinued the vital 3-day 1st Division competition in 2010. In September, 2015, the GCB announced that a four-day semi-professional league would commence in December, 2015, but played a poorly organised eight-team 50 overs’ national competition instead, without involving the BCB. In 2015, the GCB announced that another pillar of our cricket development — the annual Senior Inter-County Tournament between Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice — was being discontinued effective in 2015.

The GCB has not given the BCB a blind penny for cricket development or any other program since 2010 — all of this nonsense when our regional Test team sits at the bottom of the world rankings.

With a Secretary clearly serving in a conflict of interest situation as a paid Director of the WICB and a leading member of the Guyana Cricket Franchise, the Guyana Cricket Board has been invading Berbice and influencing clubs with gifts of “gold, frankincense and myrrh”, to the extent that a leading member of the injuncted executive committee of the BCB had signalled his intention to attend the GCB AGM of January 24th, 2016 in contravention of the court’s order.

The intention of this secretive and illegal body is to strengthen the hand of the GCB. This body has already broken up the Demerara Cricket Board, and is determined to do the same with the BCB. Its intention is likely to remain in office at all cost and by any means necessary.

The absence at the Caricom meeting of the Minister of Education Responsible for Sport, or that minister’s representative, when the meeting was held to discuss possible restructuring of the WICB; and the attendance of the Junior Minister for Sports at the Presentation and Awards Function of the Guyana Cricket Board have been noted with deep regret and consternation. Why should I attend and address your function if you have injuncted me? Is our Government showing two faces at the same time?

I therefore respectfully request the intervention of our President, His Excellency Brigadier (Retd.) David Granger, into this matter, which has been ongoing for six long years. This group is fully supported by the embattled WICB. The future of our national pastime is at stake.

Yours faithfully

MORTIMER GEORGE
Former Secretary, BCB
1987 Life Member, BCB. 2008 Hero Award Recipient, BCB. 2014 Inductee, BCB Administrators Hall of Fame. Author of The Guide and The Phenomenon – 75 Years of Berbice Cricket, published in 2014.

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