MINISTER of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr Frank Anthony says that in keeping with the Cricket Administration Bill, he as a Minister would have a very limited and small role to play.

He said that contrary to some perceptions of the Minister being a controlling force, he would be merely required to consult with the West Indies Cricket Board of Control (WICB) in the appointment of an Ombudsman for Cricket who would then verify the identities of the local clubs and organise the elections of a GCB.
Thereafter the new executive would appoint an Ombudsman of their own choice, who is independent and can run elections on their behalf.
”That is all. That is the only role of the Minister,” Dr Anthony remarked, while commenting on the state of relations between the Government of Guyana and the WICB in relation to the Cricket Administration Bill.
He said that the WICB was still holding on to its old concerns about the Bill but the Ministry had been talking with Mr Whycliffe ‘Dave’ Cameron, president of the WICB Inc. and he had indicated his intentions to visit Guyana and hopefully his visit might result in a resolution of the areas of contention.
He reiterated that the Bill had been subjected to exhaustive discussions at the level of a Special Select Committee of Parliament.
That Select Committee, as previously reported, comprised four members of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), one member from the Alliance For Change (AFC) and four members of the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
The members of the Select committee as previously reported were Christopher Jones, Joseph Harmon, Basil Williams and DrRupert Roopnarine of APNU; Khemraj Ramjattan of the AFC; and Dr Anthony, Odinga Lumumba, Attorney General Anil Nandlall and Neil Kumar for the Government.
Minister Anthony said that the Bill had reached the point where it was brought to the National Assembly but there the Government was asked to postpone this part of the process because some of the members who were on the Select committee had identified some concerns.
He said: “We agreed to the postponement because we don’t have anything to hide. We allowed those members to go through and satisfy themselves that whatever was coming in the report was what we had actually discussed. Once they are satisfied then we will be able to table the bill in Parliament and have it unanimously agreed on. So that’s what we are working on.”
He said he was hoping for a speedy resolution because he believed that cricket is suffering due to “all kinds of polarisation” which needed to be put to rest in the interest of the development of the sport in Guyana.
He said that he believed that the Interim Management Committee which the Government had put in place in December 2011 to oversee the administration of the game had done an excellent job particularly since it was a draft document produced by that Committee, headed by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd, which had been the basis for the deliberations of the Special Select Committee on the Cricket Administration Bill.

(By Clifford Stanley)