– says injunction against him withdrawn

AS Berbice cricket embarks on a new journey, acting president Dhieranidranauth Somwaru

feels the development of the game in the Ancient County is in good hands.

Somwaru’s comments came days after Hilbert Foster, CEO of Guyana’s leading sports club, Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTY&SC), pointed out that Berbice cricket is in disarray due to the lust for power, both at the county and national levels.

Foster made the statement during his address at the RHTY&SC’s 27th annual awards ceremony last Sunday,when he also mentioned that Berbice cricket is run by people who have no vision, no capacity to manage and are in charge, despite not being elected to do so.
“Whatever this body is doing,is not for personal interest but for cricket, so I don’t understand Mr. Foster’s statement when he says Berbice cricket is in disarray due to the lust for power.
“When he says we do not have no vision for the game, really I cannot understand what he means by that because for the past month and over we have been playing a number of cricket matches,because youth cricket takes precedence over the senior cricket,” Somwaru stated.

He continued “In the first part of the year we played the youth tournaments – the Under-15, 17 and 19 , but we could not access funds that the Berbice Cricket Board had when we took over office. Therefore
,we could not take out money to run any cricket, so when Mr. Foster is saying that we do not have vision, something is definitely wrong because we have a body that is functioning, but we need support.”

The BCB has been thrown into turmoil a few months after the last election in December 2014,when an injunction significantly limited the work of the then Anil Beharry-led administration, of which Somwaru was the first vice-president.
However, after the one-year term, according to what is stipulated in the Cricket Administration Bill, the BCB term expired in December 2015, and Beharry resigned from the post in January of this year.

Following Beharry’s resignation, Somwaru assumed the responsibility of acting president, since according to him the injunction was subsequently withdrawn.
“What happened, the two persons that filed the injunction, Mr. Allicock and Mr. David Black – they withdrew the injunction against me after Mr. Anil Beharry resigned as the president of the BCB, so giving me a chance to run as the president (acting), and that is what I did, but what happened is that certain people in the previous administration were not functioning effectively, so I rescinded some of those positions,” he stated.

Somwaru further added, “another thing we asked the previous Secretary of the board,Ms. Angela Hannif to supply us with were two things – an assets register and the state of the competitions that were run under the previous administration;we could not get those, so even if we had wanted to run competitions or to continue those competitions, it could not be possible because the state of those competitions were unknown, but having said that the people are functioning – no selectors have been thrown out.”

“We are functioning, I am the acting president, and I am functioning, and according to the constitution of the board, I could appoint people or nominate people to function officially on the board. We cannot hold elections because of the injunction and the Cricket Administration Bill,” he said.
Somwaru,who is also the president of the Guyana Cricket Umpire Council (GCUC) is of the firm belief that a partnership with the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) is integral for the development of the game,both at the county and national level.

Meanwhile, the Guyana Cricket Administration Act was passed in the National Assembly on May 15, 2014, and assented to by the then President on August 4, 2014.
The aim of the Act is to bring about order in the administration of cricket and to improve its governance and financial accountability arrangements.

However, the Act is yet to be implemented because of the then acting Chief Justice’s ruling of April 29, 2015, that restrains the holding of elections under the Act in respect of the Guyana Cricket Board and the county boards of Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice until the hearing and determination of the substantive action.