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Players’ priorities will be monitored says BCB Acting President
Board cricket must take precedence over Private competitions
David Black
It is understood that several players from Corentyne teams Albion and Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club have been selected to play in a privately organized 20/20 competition this weekend and David Black, Acting President of the Berbice Cricket Board on Sunday told Kaieteur Sport that the Board will be monitoring the priority of the players.
“We have been hearing of a 20/20 competition at the Stadium and we have heard that 2 of the newspapers have named players for the match. We (BCB) have not received anything official from anyone about this competition and since official Berbice cricket has been scheduled for Saturday we will be monitoring the priority of the players,” Black, also the President of the West Berbice Cricket Association informed.
Black said that while the BCB cannot prevent any player from playing in any competition, he said participation in Berbice cricket lead up to Inter-County and national selection.
“We (BCB) don’t begrudge players earning but we hope players don’t leave official club cricket to participate in private competitions. We understand that the matches at the Stadium starts in the evening and while we have no problem with the players participating, it would be interesting to see if they will represent their clubs and then go to the other match,” Black, a BCB official since the early 1990s, said.
Black says that no official correspondence asking for the players release has been sent to the board and stressed that the BCB cricket takes precedence over any unofficial cricket.
“We will monitor what happens this weekend and commitment to Berbice competitions would be taken into consideration when the selectors meet to name the Berbcie squad.
While a few dollars could be had from private tournaments it is playing for Berbcie and Guyana that qualifies players for International cricket,” Black added.
According to the state owned Media, a ‘Friends of Cricket Committee’ has organized the 20/20 competition. A source told Kaieteur Sports that the Organisers wish to remain anonymous while President of the Guyana Cricket Board Chetram Singh is on tape saying that the GCB is not involved and that the tournament is a Private fund raising activity. The GCB recently held a press conference to say they don’t sanction private competitions when the DJ Stress tournament was being promoted.
“I am not against promoters making a profit from private competitions since the players are paid and the game is popularized which help in generating interest for the game.
I feel it is however unethical for an unnamed organizer to mislead people by using advertisements saying that this competition has been given International status and using names of players that you know will not be there. People’s money is involved when they pay to enter the venue and the facts should not be changed to hype up the competition.
At least it is good to hear that the organisers changed the commercial and is no longer claiming that the game has International status,” another local cricket official stated.
“In concept the competition can do well for cricket here and the players involved are big name players.
Cricket fans really don’t care too much about who organizes a cricket match but more about who is playing and all this secrecy leads to suspicion,” he added.
Matches in the National Neal & Massy first division competition are scheduled for Berbice and Demerara on Saturday.
The Demerara players involved in the match at Providence should not be badly affected if they play for their clubs since those matches should be completed by 18:00hrs.
The Berbice players could however find it harder getting to Providence on time if they play in the National competition.
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