‘I never complained to cricket board’ says Singh

Apr 16, 2009 Sports

Wants to concentrate on cricket

Gajanand Singh

By Sean Devers
A letter jointly signed by the Presidents of the Demerara and Berbice cricket boards was sent to the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) urging them to investigate racial allegations against former Guyana Captain Travis Dowlin.
The last paragraph of the letter, which was also sent to the media, stated that, “…we have heard some very disturbing reports regarding the type of leadership our current national captain (Dowlin) has been displaying towards some players which borders on racism and would urge that this matter be investigated and dealt with forthwith.”

A source informed that the letter stemmed from an incident involving Dowlin’s team mate Gajanand Singh although no details explaining the charge against Dowlin was mentioned in the letter.
While the Stabroek News was the only newspaper to publish the story, they responsibly did not publish the final paragraph which dealt with the race issue.
The 21-year-old Singh, who has had a roller-coaster first-class career since making his debut last year, told Kaieteur Sport yesterday that he was surprised that the matter had reached the Guyana Board or the media since he never made any report to anyone.
“I just want to concentrate on my cricket but I seem to attract problems. I told someone about a personal matter that bothered me and I am really surprised that they told others and now there is a big issue,” Singh, who played nine matches for the West Indies under-19 team and five first-class games for Guyana, informed.

Singh, who opted to represent Demerara in the last inter county competition after previously playing for Berbice where he was born and lived until he moved to West Demerara last year, is worried that this latest episode will cause people to view him as a trouble maker.
“Boy this is upsetting… people will now think that every team I play in I cause trouble. I had no intention of making this an issue or seeing Travis get dropped. As a player I was disappointed with how I was treated by those in charge of the team but I knew that my job was to keep making runs whenever I got the chance to bat and force them to pick me. Getting into stuff like this (accusations against Dowlin) is not what I want,” Singh added.
The batsman says that now the matter has been made public he will have to give his side of the story at any hearing the GBC organizes although he would have preferred not to.
“At the time of the incident I just brushed it off that’s why I did not mention anything to the Manager or Coach until after I had heard other people talking about the letter being sent to the cricket board,” Singh said.

A GCB source had told this newspaper that Dowlin reacted to Singh while they were batting together but yesterday both Singh and Dowlin said they never batted together for the season and the only disagreement between the two was during a training session.
Both players declined to go into details of what transpired at the training session but Dowlin was adamant that it was nothing racial.
Both players are hoping for a quick end to this issue which has already raised plenty of debate among cricket fans both locally and abroad.

It is imperative that the GCB deal with the allegations quickly while the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) which supported Dowlin during a recent problem with the Demerara Cricket Board, launch an immediate investigation into the allegations against the Georgetown player and clears his name if the accusations are unfounded or punish him if he is found guilty since racial discrimination is a very serious matter in a multiracial like Guyana.

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