… Inter-county U-17 tournament called off

THE East Coast Cricket Committee (ECCC) has maintained that the ruling in the High Court by Justice Fidela Corbin that the Executive Committee of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) is illegal, has nothing to do with them, and as such they will go ahead with their Under-19 trials today.

ECCC event is billed for the Ogle Community Centre ground from 09:30hrs.
“The court did not rule on the affiliate bodies to the GCB, it ruled only on the legality of the GCB and the Cricket Ombudsman Stephen Lewis … subsequently the entity, the GCB, remains but the executive is dissolved,” a member of the committee said on social media.
According to Anil Persaud, the committee has nothing to fear since a court order had permitted its existence.

Persaud’s comments came even as Chronicle Sport was reliably informed through a court order that the ECCC was barred via a previous court order issued by Justice Nareshwar Harnan, from selecting the East Coast teams for submission to the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) and by extension the GCB,.

Chronicle Sport was also informed that the East Coast Cricket Board is a legally constituted organisation and the only authorised body to administer cricket between Abary and Cummings Lodge.

Meanwhile, following Wednesday’s decision by the High Court, the hosting of the Inter-county Under–17 tournament has been cancelled, leaving the administration of the game in total disarray.

This new development has now put Guyana’s cricket at jeopardy and it will be interesting to see how newly-elected CWI president Ricky Skerritt will deal with the off-field issues here.
Skerritt, in an exclusive interview with News Room Sport yesterday had stated “it won’t be business as usual on the Guyana issue”.

The matter was brought before High Court Judge, Justice Fidela Corbin, by Attorney Arudranauth Gossai on behalf of secretary of the BCB, Rabindranauth Saywack, who claimed that GCB was operating in contravention of the Guyana Cricket Administration Act established in 2014.

He also challenged the appointment of Lewis as Cricket Ombudsman, to which the High Court also ruled that the appointment was also declared unlawful, null, void and to no legal effect.

Under Guyana Cricket Administration Act (GCAA), two Ombudsmen are appointed, the first being a Cricket Ombudsman, whose sole responsibility is verifying the Register of Clubs and performing the function of Returning Officer for the first election of the members of the GCB.

“Thereafter the ombudsman will have no further part to play in respect to the holding of subsequent elections of the GCB.”

The GCB held elections in January 2018 without a Cricket Ombudsman being appointed. The Cricket Ombudsman is to be appointed by Guyana’s Minister of Sport in concert with the president of the CWI.

Lewis was only appointed Cricket Ombudsman on May 3, 2018, four months after the GCB elected its executive committee.

In light of the improper appointment, Saywack also claimed that since the commencement of the GCAA in 2014, there has been no election of the GCB and currently there is no validly elected executive committee of the GCB.

The GCB has not had a proper constituted or what many observers have labelled “free and fair” elections for the past ten years.

Staging of the GCB elections was faced with a major setback with the resignation of Guyana’s first-ever Cricket Ombudsman, Dr Winston McGowan.

Dr McGowan was appointed in 2005 by then Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr Frank Anthony, and his appointment was subsequently approved by the-then Cabinet.

He was previously charged with overseeing the elections of the various county boards and the GCB, in accordance with the Cricket Administration Act which was successfully passed in the National Assembly by the previous government in May 2014, and assented to by then President Donald Ramotar in August of that year.

The GCB has not held elections since 2009 owing to the numerous court injunctions.