Singh confident of re-election as GCB President

Jan 23, 2009 Sports

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Promised Essequibo Board votes
could seal the deal for incumbent

By Sean Devers
President of the Guyana Cricket Board since 1991, Chetram Singh, is confident of re-election when the GCB holds its election on Sunday at Bourda and if re-elected wants to focus on more on the development of youth cricket.
Speaking with Kaieteur Sports yesterday, the experienced cricket administrator, who is presently the longest serving Director on the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), explained that after finally deciding to run for another term following public call from several persons including Government officials, he intends complete projects which were started during his last term and confirmed there will be changes on the board.
“Now that I have made the decision I have to complete unfinished business which includes the construction of a hostel and indoor facility at LBI. We have the money ($90 million) and it is just a case of getting all of the red-tape with GUYSUCO out of the way. Too long rain has hampered our national team’s preparation and the indoor practice facility should be completed before the end of the year,” Singh informed.
Singh said decentralizing the cricket is also big on his agenda for the new term of office but added that it was the responsibility of the area associations and county boards to play as much cricket in their respective areas.
“We will defiantly be going back to Linden and while we hope to spread the game far and wide, the GCB can do only so much. The area associations have to play their part and we (GCB) will have to be more diligent that with our help so they can organize more competitions and coaching sessions and pull their weight,” Singh explained.
Many have accused members of the GCB of not putting cricket first and having their own agenda and the double loss of the Guyana senior team this month in Grenada and Barbados have done little to instill confidence in the state of Guyana’s cricket.
Singh concedes that some members have not pulled their weight and promised an improved performance by the board in all areas over the next two years.
“There will be changes at nearly all levels of our cricket as fresh blood is injected to complement the experienced members,” Singh revealed.
Guyana’s involvement as one of three host venue for the 2010 Twenty/20 World Cup could be a key factor in Singh being retained, since Director of Sports and Parliamentarian Neil Kumar has publicly called for support for the incumbent because of his vast experience and knowledge of playing an integral role in Guyana’s hosting of major cricketing events including the 2007 World Cup.
Kaieteur Sport had recently suggested a four-team tournament between Berbice, Demerara, a rest team made up of the best seven Essequibo players and the fringe players from Berbice and Demerara along with a youth team to replace the largely ineffective competition, which was used as an alternative for the Inter-County four-day tournament.
With Essequibo showing little improvement over the years, the inter-county was replaced by a three-team competition with the national selectors picking what they considered the best 42 players and dividing them into teams.
“The experiment of the three-team competition proved a failure since it was not as competitive as desired even though a monetary prize was put up by the board and if I am re-elected we’ll certainly re-visit the format this year. We (GCB) will consider this year what the Kaieteur News suggested,” Singh noted.
He said that if more facilities are available two games could be played at the same time so that the tournament will not take too long to be completed.
Singh said that hosting the tournament has always been a strong point for the GCB and opined that the 2010 Twenty/20 World Cup should be no different.
“A lot of things will be done differently this term if I am re-elected as we strive to take our cricket forward and I have spoken to several stakeholders and all agree that the strengthening of our youth cricket, which used to be very strong in the 1990s, could be critical to us once again being a powerhouse at the senior regional level,” Singh said.
With the Demerara Cricket Board expected to support Singh at Sunday’s elections and the Berbice Cricket Board expected to favor Panday, the Essequibo votes could prove to be decisive.
Singh’s chance of another term as President was given a boast yesterday when Kaieteur News was told that the Essequibo Board is 5-4 in favor of Singh at a meeting last Saturday at the ECB hostel in Anna Regina.
When contacted yesterday evening both Chetram Singh and President of the Demerara Cricket Board (Bissoon Singh) confirmed receiving this information by way of letter from the Public Relations Officer of the ECB.

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