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GCB being held to ransom

Apr 07, 2011 Letters

Dear Editor,
I am appalled at the current state of play regarding Guyana’s cricket after reading Sean Devers article and D. Joseph’s letter in the Kaieteur News on Sunday April 03.
Guyana has now finished at the bottom of the table for three years in a row – an unflattering ‘hat-trick’ to use the cricket jargon, one that no cricket administrator, cricketer nor fan of Guyana cricket should ever be proud about.
Ever since the turn of the last decade, Guyana’s cricket has been on the decline.
It is appropriate and justifiable that Chetram Singh has finally decided to call it a day as 20 years is indeed quite a long time and he has had a great run during the 90s, but the last decade has been the most controversial time for Guyana and WI cricket.
It must be noted that most of the controversy surrounded the quest for power to replace Chetram Singh and we have had a most nasty state of affairs in the last two elections cycle.
This period of decline has coincided with the chairmanship of the selectors being held by another great administrator, Claude Raphael.
Mr. Raphael has also held the dubious title of Chairman of the Cricket Development Committee during the larger part of the 2000s until he handed over this important position in January 2009 to his erstwhile supporter and confidante, Bissoondyal Singh. Nothing has changed for the past decade except further decline. These two positions within any cricket Board can be considered to be the livewire/core/backbone/pillars of any cricket administration.
These Committees (selection & cricket development) are the ones that the organisation’s outcomes are measured against and they are synonymous with two huge failures in the form of Raphael and Bissoondyal Singh. Any decent administrator, after experiencing such results, should walk away quietly and allow someone else a chance.
I will not shoot down Mark Harper at this time as he cannot be judged on the outcome of a single season. In addition he had a rather late appointment to his position and the team was without all of its experienced players for the entire season.
It was noteworthy that both of the above committee heads had voted against the appointment of Mark Harper as coach early this year.
From my limited observation of this team, it is quite a young team but there is a dire need for the coach to develop the mental aspects of these players’ game as that is the area that they are sadly lacking in. The captain also did highlight the regular absence of a video analyst and the Board should focus on these two areas in the months ahead in preparation of the regional one day competition and next year’s Regional four-day competition.
The local competitions and programmes need to be carefully thought out and executed and renewed focus need to be placed in the school system. It was good to see the CCC coming out on top of the Regional four-day competition after the preliminary matches.
Another very perplexing situation is the continuous delay in the holding of the GCB’s AGM. I cannot fathom why the Registrar of the Friendly Societies need in excess of three months to enquire and approve any sporting organisation’s account when the auditor has already given it a clean bill of health. If there was any evidence of fraud or misappropriation, the police should have already been summoned.
I wonder if all the other sporting organisations are experiencing the same level of scrutiny as the GCB.
I have seen several allegations of misappropriation in other sporting bodies but the Friendly Society seems unconcerned about these organisations and seems to have made the GCB their full time 12 months occupation. The Sports Minister needs to get involve in having this matter hastened immediately as there seems to be definite interference by politicians or otherwise. It is no passing coincidence that the GCB is being held ransom until the determination of the court proceedings with the DCB matter.
Every time the DCB court matter is postponed the GCB meeting with the Registrar is postponed and the Minister should be ashamed of his actions.
I. Sankar

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