By Rajiv Bisnauth

ALLEGATIONS of poor management in the administration of cricket locally have provided one of the ongoing dramas for close to a decade.

However, the situation may soon come to a halt this Friday as elections for a legitimate Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) will be staged at a venue and time to be announced.

Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson Jr, has set February 26 as the date for the long-awaited election of the new executive of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB).

To this end, former president of the Essequibo Cricket Board (ECB), Sheik Ahmad, in an invited comment yesterday said he is pleased at the new development, since some form of normalcy and democracy will return to the game locally.

“While I am happy to see normalcy and democracy return to cricket, I must applaud the initiative by the subject minister and all stakeholders, who have fought tirelessly over a decade to get this semblance of order to our cricket,” Ahmad stated.

Ahmad, who had served as treasurer on the GCB and as alternate director on the West Indies Cricket Board, now Cricket West Indies (CWI), urged the Essequibo Cricket Board (ECB) to stand up and be a part of the elections. He further urged the ECB to be a part of the new GCB and its developmental plans, so that cricket can improve both at the county and national levels.

The experienced cricket administrator is of the opinion that retired cricketers must play an integral role in the new leadership.

Meanwhile, president of the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB), Bissoondyal Singh, said the minister’s announcement is a breath of fresh air for all the aspiring cricketers of Guyana.

“I must commend the Honourable Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson Jr, for aggressively pursuing this matter to bring an end to the illegality and illegitimacy that clouded Guyana’s cricket.

“When history is written this minister must be properly placed as one who has contributed to our dear land as it relates to the development of cricket …never again should we have a national institution seized by a few and (who) lock out the people of this country. It must be a breath of fresh air for all the aspiring cricketers of Guyana,” Singh, who is also president of the East Coast Cricket Board (ECCB), said.

The minister’s move stems from consultations with CWI, pursuant to the requirements of the Guyana Cricket Administration Act and on the heels of the DCB elections held last Friday.

Attorney-at-Law Kamal Ramkarran was appointed the new Cricket Ombudsman. Ramkarran, who has served as president of the Bar Association of Guyana in the past replaces Stephen Lewis, who had been appointed by then Minister with responsibility for Sport, George Norton.

Further the Cricket Ombudsman will hereinafter advise the next steps in accordance with the Guyana Cricket Administration Act.

Apart from administrative failure, GCB has been embroiled in controversy from one court battle to the next for nearly a decade now. Elections have not been held since 2012 and only last month the persons holding themselves as executive members of the body were deemed illegal by the Guyana government.