MINISTER of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr Frank Anthony, tabled the Cricket Administration Bill for its first reading last Thursday in the National Assembly, and then sent it for scrutiny to a special select committee, as a meeting with the relevant parties will soon be held to elect the chairperson for the committee that would deal with the bill.

Presidential Adviser on Governance, Ms Gail Teixeira, provided this update yesterday when she deputized for Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon at the usual post-Cabinet presser at the Office of the President on Shiv Chanderpaul Drive in Georgetown.
Dr Luncheon had to be hospitalized again yesterday, Ms Teixeira reported, but he is reportedly in stable condition undergoing further tests.
The one time Sports Minister explained that Dr Anthony and Attorney General Anil Nandlall met on Tuesday with APNU’s Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, AFC’s James Patterson, and other members of the IMC to look at the bill. Amendments were made as a result of that encounter, and a number of clauses which were considered problematic were deleted, but the one dealing with the minister convening the date for the elections of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) was not deleted.
According to Ms Teixeira, Dr Roopnaraine suggested that the matter should go with haste to a special select committee because elections need to be held in the GCB by the end of January.
Minister Anthony and the AG, considering this a reasonable position, took the suggestion to Cabinet, which approved the approach; hence the bill went to the House with this understanding.
Nevertheless, when Minister Anthony got up to introduce the bill, the APNU side shouted that the bill should never have seen the ‘light of day’ in the House. “So, somewhere along the line, the left hand doesn’t seem to know what the right hand is doing,” Ms Teixeira offered.
“The special select committee was as a result of discussions with the Speaker and his cooperation (in having) a meeting (on Thursday) in the break time to nominate the members of the cricket…the special select committee to look at the cricket bill. The members have been nominated, (and) the opposition again has (the) majority.”
Meanwhile, at a news conference earlier this month, Teixeira noted that government has to ensure that all sports federations in Guyana are governed under best practices, transparency and accountability.
“We cannot be talking about these things (transparency and accountability) only in relation to government. It must also involve the non-governmental sectors of society, including the private sector, labour unions, and the sports bodies.
“These sectors acquire funds from people, and hence must be held accountable,” she remarked. “We also have a duty to protect the people operating in this sector. There must be somebody you can appeal to when something goes wrong in sports. And it’s about time that the WICB (the West Indies Cricket Board) also have greater disclosure,” she said.
Dr Luncheon had earlier said that, following the example of sister CARICOM countries, particularly Trinidad and Tobago, legislation in the sector is not so much about government’s involvement, but about regulating the standards that deal with operations.
The Cricket Bill is modelled significantly after existing legislation enacted in Trinidad and Tobago.
Regarding the West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) disregard for Guyana’s judicial rulings, and its insistence on recognising the discredited GCB, Dr Luncheon had said: “They have left the door open for a new dispensation to develop, particularly the Cricket Bill and its schedule that includes a constitution for the GCB. In essence, we are thinking that the WICB wouldn’t conceivably be saying to Guyanese and the Administration…we are running cricket in Guyana the way we feel like.”