Police cause GCB 4-day match to be abandoned

Nov 14, 2009 Sports

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Cricketers prevented from finishing match due to school Sports

By Sean Devers
Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Administrator Savitri Persaud is adamant that she followed proper procedure by sending a request letter for the use of the Police Sports Club ground for the 4-day GCB match from November 10-13 to the Staff Officer, Administration and copied it to Inspector Boyce who is in charge of the Police Sports Secretariat.
This disclosure was made after the cricketers were yesterday denied the use of the ground to complete the match on the scheduled final day. A school sports event was given precedence to the GCB cricket match which began on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday and Thursday.
When contacted as to why the Concorde Academy’s Sports resulted in the cricket match, (which is a national competition and which is being used to help select the Guyana team for next year’s Regional First-Class season) being abandoned, a senior Police officer told this newspaper that Senior Superintendent Jarvis was the person who could explain the confusion.
While Chairman of the GCB competitions committee Carl Moore said last evening that the match was abandoned as a draw due to the unavailability of the ground on the last day, more than 10 calls to Jarvis’s office for a comment proved futile.

It was disclosed that the Police officer who reportedly caused the cricket match to be called off yesterday, was in a meeting and would return a call to this reporter.
She never called to give the Police side of the story up to press time and it is hoped that the GCB and the high command of the Guyana Police Force launch an investigation into what transpired at the Eve Leary ground yesterday since the final day of a match of this magnitude being called on a sunny day can only be described as ridiculous.
The decision of Moore’s committee to award the Rest Team 6 points for their first innings lead and Demerara 3 points in the ‘officially drawn’ game means that Berbice just need to avoid defeat in their final round game against Demerara to take the tile and make a mockery of the series after the farcical GCB competition that was held last year.
In other parts of the cricketing world serious questions would have been asked and people could have lost their positions, but like most things in Guyana….a days’ play in an important match being called off without a ball being bowled in sunny conditions is ‘no big thing’.
Yet we wonder why people who know cricket favoured Trinidad and Tobago to win the last regional One-Day title before a ball was bowled in the competition.

Moore’s committee has now set a serious precedence since even at the club level, if a team is in trouble and need a draw to win a title in their last round game, the ground could be rented for another event and the match condemned officially as a draw.
The Rest team, made up of players rejected by their county teams, had a great chance of winning this competition if they had won yesterday and the fact that no real attempt by the GCB to have play possible yesterday after claiming they had permission for 4 days of cricket leaves several questions unanswered about the genuine interest of GCB members in seeing cricket being played.
The Trinidad and Tobago Government only this week said that their sporting venues will no longer be used for fetes and concerts and one would assume that what transpired at Eve Leary yesterday would never have happened as a TTCB match in the twin Island Republic.
Faith also has a way off getting at you since Vishal Singh, who took his time as he approached his century on the penultimate day when many felt the Rest Team should have been hunting quick runs to facilitate a declaration, has now been denied of registering a ton at this level as he was left high and dry on 97.
Deon Ferrier, surprisingly overlooked by the Demerara selectors but picked for Guyana a few days later, will also be very disappointed with the decision by the Guyana Police Force to put school sports ahead of a senior match involving a county team which had already started, since he followed up his 71 in the first innings with unbeaten on 67 and was staking a claim for a First Class call-up when the game came to a shocking end.
This competition is becoming another farcical and meaningless event which continue to tax the coffers of the GCB especially since the same Moore Committee, which felt that Essequibo was not good enough to participate last year, feels that county team has had a miraculous transformation and are now good enough to compete for the title this year.
Their embarrassing defeats in both matches were not surprising to anyone except maybe the GCB Competitions committee members and the new Essequibo cricket Board officials who seem to have totally given up on cricket in the county.
For those still interested in the final round of GCB 4-team tournament, Essequibo face the Rest Team in Essequibo and Demerara play Berbcie at Everest with both matches scheduled to start on Tuesday.
One hopes that the Essequibo team turns up to compete and that no fair or other social activity has been fixed for Everest on any of the 4 days scheduled for the match. But then again, who cares?

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