… Ravin Babulall is new president

By Frederick Halley

TORONTO, Canada – Sweeping changes occurred when the Ontario Softball Cricket League (OSCL) held its 25th Annual General Meeting (AGM), at Number 42 Police Division, Scarborough, here, last Sunday.

With incumbent president Albert Ramcharran, Secretary/Public Relations Officer (PRO) Frederick Halley, Scheduler/Coordinator Vish Jadunauth opting to not seek re-election, and vice-president Terry Mathura deemed ineligible, the executive committee featured several changes.

Heading the list is Ravin Babulall, the former Assistant Registrar/Statistician who was elected the new president and former treasurer Kim Sue, who is now vice-president. The new Secretary/PRO is Vick Singh while Budesh Ramsaywack, who served as Assistant secretary/treasurer, takes over as treasurer. Dharmendra Kumar is the new Assistant secretary/treasurer.

Romando Sugrim will serve as Registrar/Statistician, taking over from Patrick Shivrattan who resigned during the latter part of the 2019 season while his assistant is Natasha Sue. Bobby Ramlagan, who was Assistant secretary/treasurer until the start of the 2019 season when he opted to resign, returns as Scheduler/Coordinator.

Prior to being elected to the top post, Babulall praised the efforts of the outgoing president. According to Babulall, he was not happy that Ramcharran was leaving after giving 25 years of yeoman service to the OSCL and had been one of the founding members, along with Jadunauth.

Babulall pointed that the players, including some executives “weren’t being fair to Ramcharran in the execution of his duties”. He called on executives to be able to separate their teams’ business from that of the executives.

In an emotional report, Ramcharran disclosed that after 25 years as a founding-member of the league, “my time has come to an end. I expected or I at least hoped to be here for as long as the players deemed me worthy of the honour of representing them but like everything else, all things must come to an end”.

According to the outgoing president, “When I joined the league in 1996, the aim was to make our mainly Guyanese community enjoy the grassroots game for generations to come. I believe that to some extent that I have been able to achieve that feat.

“I, like so many of my colleagues, ran for office because I believed that there was need to maintain our culture and spread the game of softball extensively. Sadly enough, it seemed that our efforts have not been appreciated by many.”

The popular businessman said he was grateful to be part of the OSCL and will never forget the experience.

Ramcharran said he was “leaving now because of double standards. I am leaving because of the vile, threatening emails and texts among other things. I am leaving because family life demands it. Last but not least, I am also leaving to give “younger blood” a chance to take over.

“During my time as president, I always stressed the importance of accountability and I have been able to maintain that. I hope that whoever takes over the ‘hot seat’ will also make that their number one priority.”

Ramcharran also took the opportunity to congratulate the winning and runner-up teams and all the other participating teams across all formats in the league during the last season.

He expressed thanks to his hard-working executives who, according to him, have been tested to the fullest last year but have withstood with flying colours. “To you I say a big thank you for your outstanding and sterling efforts. To our several sponsors, I say hearty thanks for your sterling contributions over the years.”