By Rajiv Bisnauth

EAST Coast Cricket Board (ECCB) president and businessman Bissoondyal Singh, was unanimously elected president of the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) yesterday, ending a decade of cricket turmoil that had engulfed the game both on and off the field in the county.
Singh was nominated to head the DCB by vice-president of the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) Roger Harper and it was seconded by the other vice-president of the Georgetown Cricket Association, Azad Ibrahim.
The election of Singh, an experienced cricket administrator with a reputation for impartiality and competence, has raised the hopes for a complete turnaround of the game in Demerara.

Observers described the elections as a “way station” to administrative stability and full equality of all stakeholders, since they believe that Singh is a man perceived to be popular and performance-oriented.
For the last several years, the administration of the game was thrown into turmoil. In fact, ever since the board’s 2009 elections, a number of legal actions have prevented the proper administration of the game.
The prolonged absence of a legitimate DCB had certainly stymied the development of cricket in the county more so after January 2011, where an act unprecedented in the history of sports took place with the staging of two elections by the DCB.
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, leaving the administration of the board in jeopardy.

But Singh, who promised to eradicate the differences in his first term, presented an early opportunity for all stakeholders

to work with his administration.
“Today is the dawn of a new era, and democracy has returned to Demerara cricket for good,” Singh said after being elected.
“We intend to have this process – the electoral process – at the DCB to be transparent and democratic as possible. From now on, no media would be locked out. Every single thing concerning the management of the Demerara Board, as well as the selection of our team and the cricket development of the Demerara Board would be made public.”

The election was scheduled after the Full Court quashed an application that was made by Anand Sanasie, president of the West Demerara Cricket Association (WDCA), to prevent the holding of a free and fair election of executive members for the DCB.
In light of the unanimous decision by the Full Court last Wednesday to disallow Sanasie’s application to further stymie the process, the election went ahead unhindered under the supervision of the court. The decisions were part of the ruling made by Justice Navindra Singh in the matter.
Retired Major General of the Guyana Defence Force, Norman McLean, performed the duties of Returning Officer. He was nominated by Claude Raphael and seconded by Neil Barry.

However, at yesterday’s elections three of the five associations affiliated to the DCB took part in the process.
The GCA, ECCB and Upper Demerara Cricket Association (UDCA) – were in full compliance, provided their list of delegates to registry to the High Court, and as such were allowed to exercise their voting rights.
The other two associations with voting rights – West Demerara Cricket Association (WDCA) and East Bank Cricket Association (EBCA) – did not turn up since they failed to provide their list of delegates, despite both Anand Sanasie, who is president of WDCA and president of EBCA Anand Kalladeen being served the Court Order.
The five associations were mandated to submit their delegates by Wednesday afternoon to the registry of the High Court.
Harper and president of UDCA, Bradley Fredericks, were elected vice-presidents, while Ibrahim was elected treasurer and Pretipaul Jaigobin, assistant treasurer.
Davteerth Anandjit and Ronald Williams are secretary and assistant secretary respectively; Barry is the Marketing Manager and Raymond Barton Chairman of the Competitions Committee.

Raphael has been elected to serve as Public Relations Officer (PRO), while the trustees are Troy Khan and Fazal Ishak.
The DCB election was first made possible following the restoration of the Cricket Administration Act to its original condition last September. With DCB election now done and dusted, all attention will now turn to the elections of the Guyana Cricket Board.
Based on the Act, the first elections of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) by law should be called by the Minister of Sport in consultation with the West Indies Cricket Board (now Cricket West Indies).
A section of the Act also addressed the issue of phantom voting for the election of persons for administrative positions and at the same time will give limited power to the Minister of Sport.
The role of the minister under the legislation will be only to appoint the Ombudsman and his role ceases.
The Act, as a previous article in Chronicle Sport had pointed out, also provides for better financial accountability with the cricket board being required to present timely audited financial reports to the National Assembly, as well as the National Sports Commission (NSC).