… Veteran Berbice Sports Personality Mortimer George unfairly vilified

(Letter to the Sports Editor)

AS a former executive and a life member of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) from the late 1970s, I have never witnessed any elections of that Board conducted in such an unlawful manner as the one held on 8th October, 2017.
The deliberate violation of the court order was alarming. And noticeably Mr Anand Sanasie and Mr Anand Kalladeen, directors of Cricket West Indies (CWI), were present at those elections and interfered with the process by conducting the illegal method as self-appointed officials of Berbice cricket.
Is this the new dispensation of CWI or is it a part of Dave Cameron’s and CWI’s policy to keep them in power. I would agree that once there is a name change there may be amendments in some of the rules of the organisation but not to the extent of hijacking the domestic elections of Territorial Boards.

Mr Drubahadur, sitting at the head table and illegally performing the duties of Returning Officer, should have known better than to embarrassingly impose himself on the proceedings. He seemed to be oblivious to the guidelines for the elections issued by the court. Or maybe Drubahadur was given instructions by those who used him to violate the court order on how the elections must be conducted. Is this the same Drubahadur who is the owner of a professional accounting business?
I have read a number of damning letters in the press condemning the rigged elections of the Berbice Cricket Board. I know that former executives and supporters of the BCB have condemned the madness that went on at the Berbice elections.
The system was illegal and could only have been adopted by persons who do not have basic fairness in their minds. Never in the 78-year history of the BCB have there been tainted elections.

The Berbice Cricket Board up to this time was the best-run cricket board in Guyana and the region and has produced talented male and female cricketers for the county, Guyana and the West Indies.
I am heartened that a stalwart of Berbice Cricket, Mr Mortimer George, has recorded his strong exception to the fraudulent BCB elections and has asked for a full investigation into that sordid matter.

Mr George, from the age of 22 years, served the BCB as Asst Secretary, Treasurer, Chairman and Secretary of the Competitions Committee, Secretary, Representative to the Guyana Cricket Board, Selector and Cricket Manager. He has been honoured with the Hero Award and is a Life Member of the Berbice Cricket Board, the Young Warriors Cricket Club and the Bermine Community Sports Club.

It is therefore extremely unkind and mischievous for letter-writer Persaud, in a clearly personal attack, to mention Mr George’s present ailment as part of his rebuff of Mr George’s critique of the BCB elections. Mr George, even though elderly, has an abiding affection for Berbice cricket on which he has written three books, a magazine and many articles. He continues to speak out and write on the chaos that has enveloped Guyana’s cricket and which has now reached and infected Berbice cricket.
For Persaud or anyone else to personally vilify Mr Mortimer George because of the principled position he has taken on the illegal Berbice Board elections is most reprehensible.

I conclude by expressing a hope that the illegality of the Berbice Board is arrested, that fair and legal elections are urgently held and that the people of Berbice be allowed to have their own elections without representatives of the GCB and CWI hijacking the process. The Berbice Board will then once again be a pivotal organisation in Guyana and West Indies cricket.