MINISTER of State within the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon, echoed Cabinet’s joyful feelings concerning the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2015 cricket tournament as it relates to Guyana. Speaking at yesterday’s post-Cabinet press briefing, Minister Harmon said, “We are proud of the Guyanese Franchise and we are proud of the achievement of the Amazon Warriors … we look forward to their presence in the final and actually winning it – we have been there in both 2013 and 2015.”
Explaining that many members of the ruling Administration actually ‘took off’ on Tuesday for the Amazon-Zouks game which Guyana won easily, Minister Harmon expressed the hope that, “barring weather or some such intervention, (we) will not be robbed of a deserved victory.”
In the inaugural 2013 final, Guyana lost to the Jamaica Tallawahs by seven wickets. In 2014, Guyana missed out against the Barbados Tridents, who took the title under highly controversial circumstances. The game was called off by the umpires, with Guyana needing 46 off 25 balls, chasing 152. The rain-forced Duckworth/Lewis method then handed the Tridents victory by eight runs, as at the time of stoppage Guyana fell short of the revised target by eight runs.
Quizzed about the US$500 000 supposedly owed to the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) organisers, Minister Harmon said the Government’s position remains clear. “As far as I am concerned, until and unless documentation in written form is produced for what was done and by whom, Government will not honour any false or verbal claim.” The Minister explained that this was the word of Finance Minister Winston Jordan, and it remains final.
He added that meetings were held with CPL CEO Damien O’Donohoe and that Government’s word was made clear to him, “that in the absence of any agreement in writing, between CPL and the Government of Guyana (and) if he can produce documents, then a way forward can be reached, (as) governments do business like this … a trace of paper work must be present.”
During last week, Finance Minister Winston Jordan confirmed that his Government had received an invoice reflecting the amount to be paid to CPL, even adding that CPL was threatening legal action if the money was not paid.
“I’m not paying it unless I see substantial evidence that there was a contract signed for services, that the services were performed and that the services were performed satisfactorily. Whoever contracted them has to know where they are getting the money from,” said Jordan at the time.
On the bright side, and looking towards the future, Minister Harmon evinced sentiments that it is the intention of Government to continue its partnership with CPL, as “Guyana is a cricket-loving nation” and hopefully “all business deals will be properly done.