By Sean Devers
THE Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) held its first press conference for the year at the Muslim Youth Organisation (MYO) yesterday to respond to allegations made in a press release issued to the media by the GCB.

GCA’s president, Neil Barry, disclosed that the press conference was held to provide the media and the Guyanese public with GCA’s response to the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) press release on Sunday 16, January 2022, titled ‘Bissoondyal Singh re-election President at Demerara Cricket (DCB) by trashing Speaker of the House Manzoor Nadir.

The DCB press release singled out the GCA for poor attendance at meetings and inefficient performance in positions they were elected to serve.

After no one from the GCA was elected on the DCB, which controls cricket in the City, its members took no further part in proceeding.

Barry showed the media a copy of a spreadsheet debunking the DCB’s claims of none attendance at meetings.

“It is clear that several other executives had poorer attendance records than the senior GCA executives mentioned in the release but their names were not mentioned.

Further, the executive meetings were organised in an ad-hoc manner with notifications sent, in most cases, within 24 to 48 hours prior to the meetings as against the statutory date of the first Saturday of each month that was set at the DCB Executive meeting held in October 2022 as extracted from the DCB minutes. But this was not done.

Some of these meetings clashed with GCA meetings which meant we could not attend. What was not mentioned was that excuses were sent in most, especially by Harper who, in 2021, was a West Indies selector while brother Azad had government-related actives as Manager of the National Stadium at Providence” Barry continued.

Barry informed that he attended twelve of sixteen meetings held over a two-year period, Vice-President Roger Harper eight of the sixteen, while Azad Abrahim attended five of the sixteen.

“The DCB spoke about efficiency of the last AMG held but how efficient was that AGM when notifications were sent three days before the meeting was held? The constitution states that notification shall be given to all of its members 30 days before the OGM.

He added that about eighty per cent of the agenda was rushed with the president speaking, not giving anyone else a chance to ask questions. “When GCA members asked questions they were rebuffed in a very aggressive manner” explained Barry.

Another thing mentioned by the DCB was that GCA members did not perform in key important positions which they were placed in.

Barry said Harper was the Chairman of the Cricket Devolvement Committee and he was named as Marketing Manager.

“At the meeting, I said I had not attracted any sponsorship for that period of time but they did not allow me [to] explain the reason.

“Let’s start with Harper. They said he never submitted a report but I have here a report sent by Harper and it was noted in the DCB minutes in June that this report was submitted.

“I said I did not want the position of Marketing Manager since it was not my strength and, apart from that, as President of the GCA, I would like to focus my attention there.

They said it was a team effort and that I would just manage the process. I agreed and we went on. The first sub-heading about Marketing was done on January 28, 2022.

Barry said it was difficult to get sponsors since many of the places he approached were not interested because of the issues in Demerara’s cricket.

“Despite these issues which included GCA selector Roderick Lovell, also Demerara selector, being forced to resign from the GCA due to a conflict of interest while there is no such problem with the same person being the President of East Coast, Demerara and Guyana, the GCA teams will continue to participate in DCB cricket since GCA is still a part of that entity” said Barry, who described the GCA’s relationship with the DCB as ‘Estranged’.

“This is an Administrative problem which has nothing to do with the players who have won all of the DCB tournament for last year. The GCA is focused on development of its players and cricket in Georgetown.

“We have worked in eight Primary Schools with our Coaches in tri-party collaboration with the ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport. And this year we will build on our achievements for 2022” said Barry who described the GCA as a Cricket focussed Association.

Among the many things the GCA cleared the air on was that one of the reasons they became incorporated was to access Sponsorship for tournaments since GCA needed a TIN number to have a Bank account.

Barry said he wants the public to help make the cricket better because it is them who are members of Clubs and Associations whose members have voting rights.