… EBCA, WDCA fail to submit list of delegates, hence cannot take part in the electoral process

By Rajiv Bisnauth

FOLLOWING the ruling by the Full Court last Wednesday, Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) Elections will be held today at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) pavilion beginning at 11:00hrs.
The Full Court quashed an application that was made by Anand Sanasie, president of the West Demerara Cricket Association, to prevent the holding of a free and fair election of executive members for the Demerara Cricket Board.
In light of the unanimous decision by the Full Court to disallow Sanasie’s application to further stymie the process, the election will now go ahead unhindered under the supervision of the court.

An assigned official from the Court will call the meeting to order after which a Returning Officer will be nominated and elected to conduct the elections. The decisions were part of the ruling made by Justice Navindra Singh.
However, today’s elections will see three of the five associations affiliated to the DCB with voting rights.
The five associations were mandated to submit their delegates by Wednesday afternoon to registry to the High Court.
But only the Georgetown Cricket Association, East Coast Cricket Board and Upper Demerara Cricket Association were in full compliance, providing their list of delegates.
Chronicle Sport was reliably informed late yesterday that the other two associations with voting rights – West Demerara Cricket Association (WDCA) and East Bank Cricket Association (EBCA) – have not provided their list of delegates, despite both Sanasie and president of the East Bank Cricket Association Anand Kalladeen were served the Court Order.

Georgetown Cricket Association, East Coast Cricket Board, East Bank Cricket Association and West Demerara Cricket Association have seven votes each, while Upper Demerara Cricket Association has three, making it a total of 31 votes at the DCB election.
The prolong absence of a legitimate DCB had certainly stymied the development of cricket in the County. However, Justice Singh’s ruling on Monday will now pave the way for a legitimate board for the first time since 2009.
His ruling ended over a decade of several Court matters which have affected the smooth operations at the board level.
In January 2011, an act unprecedented in the history of sports took place with the staging of two elections by the DCB.
The separate elections were held; one by businessman Bissoondyal Singh at the Lusignan Community Centre and the other by Raj Singh at the Wales Community Centre.
Following those elections, the factions failed to recognise the eligibility of each other’s event and this was followed by a number of Court matters.