PRESIDENT of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TCCB) Azim Bazzarath said he is pleased with the High Court’s decision to quash an injunction filed in October 2016, to stop impending elections of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB).

Former Windies cricketers Dinanath Ramnarine and Daren Ganga filed the injunction alongside members of the Nations League who are also members of the TTCB, who have been campaigning for the board to introduce a one-club-one-vote system.

They argue that the provisions of the TTCB constitution are flawed in that they promote an unfair election process and gives incumbent officers and persons nominated by them an advantage over other persons who are contesting the elections.

An executive team of the TTCB is comprised of six officers – the president, first vice-president, second vice-president, third vice-president, general secretary and treasurer – as well as six nominated members after each Annual General Meeting.

Therefore, at the time of each AGM, those 12 persons are members of the board.

As such, the TTCB argued that there were no grounds to justify the Court’s intervention in the elections which were being conducted in accordance with the TTCB constitution.

The Court, in agreement, ruled that the case put forward by the claimants has ‘little support in fact or law’.

The central argument of the claimants’ case is that a block of 12 votes out of a majority of 49 is assured to the TTCB’s outgoing officers and that constitutes an unfair advantage that yields an unjust result.

However, according to the High Court‘s December 17, 2018 ruling: “A block of 12 votes out of a maximum of 49 does not, by any standard, give rise to a majority.

“If the TTCB’s full membership were to participate in an election, the incumbent officers would require a minimum of 25 votes to prevail – far in excess of the stipulated 12.”

“We were very happy with the outcome. From the very beginning we knew that no judge would have interfered with the constitution of any national body, because what happened is that the board members will make that decision, they will want will want to govern their association or board in the way they see it fit, and they will not like any institution from outside the board to interfere with their business,” Bazzarath told SportsMax.TV yesterday.

“We were confident of victory,” the TTCB president continued. “And in the end, we know people on the board and the national population is very happy with the ruling.”

He did lament that the sport had suffered in TT over the two years the matter was before the courts.

“With this matter behind us now we are looking to put things in place and to take Trinidad and Tobago cricket where it is supposed to be.”

Bazzarath is seeking a third term as president of the board. (Extracted from Sportsmax)