Public being deliberately misled on impasse in Guyana cricket – NCSG

Dec 23, 2012 Sports

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The National Cricket Stakeholders Group which is made up of the Berbice Cricket Board, Georgetown Cricket Association, East Coast Cricket Board, the Upper Demerara Cricket Association and the West Demerara United Cricket League at a press conference held at Manila Hotel, Pere Street Kitty yesterday said that the public has been deliberately misled on the crisis that has enveloped Guyana’s cricket over the past two years by the present group of GCB members.

They further stated that the West Indies Cricket Board for its part has shown total disregard for the Laws of Guyana, the sovereignty and the cricket stake holders of Guyana as they continue to aid and abet the illegality in Guyana’s cricket. Despite strenuous appeals by the stake holders, the WICB refused to investigate the serious charges of corruption and instead, readily accepted the illegal GCB executive.
According to the group there is a court order that has clearly injuncted those persons holding themselves out as executive members of Guyana Cricket Board. On July 10th, 2012, the Annual General Meeting of the GCB was called to order without the requisite quorum and elections were held illegally as only one of the three county boards took part and only 10 of the twenty seven delegates participated.
The Guyana Cricket Board Tuesday last indicated that they are moving to set up a committee in order to repair the fractured Demerara Cricket Board (DCB), which was split into two factions in 2011, among other issues affecting the sport locally.
Claude Raphael a member of the group said it is unacceptable the GCB selected a committee to resolve the issue in DCB.
Secretary of the Berbice Cricket Board Angela Haniff said the BCB do not received funds from the GCB. “The GCB do not pay the administrator of BCB but still continues to pay the Essequibo Cricket Board Administrator. Our cricketers are being victimized, a national U-15 team was selected earlier this year and not a single player from the Ancient County was on the squad,” she added. She said she was served with a dismissal notice by the GCB but was unaware of her employment. Haniff is calling on the government to institute contempt of court proceedings against the members of the GCB.
The group is contending that the GCB’s decisions are now bent on further disrespect, by ignoring the parliamentary process that has begun and is intended to bring relief to the chaos in Guyana’s cricket. The stake holder’s sessions offered important solutions to the cricket crisis at both the GCB and DCB levels and have been documented for submission and consideration during the parliamentary process. Parliament, which effectively is representative of the people of Guyana, will shortly be presented with a cricket Administration Bill 2012 which is expected to pave the way for democratic and transparent elections to be held for the DCB and GCB.
President of the East Coast Cricket Board, Bissoondyal Singh said that a proper constituted Demerara Cricket Board should be dealt with first.
“Now that the bill has gone to parliament the stakeholder will submit their recommendation to the select committee that will solve the problem of the DCB so there will be three proper constituted county boards that will eventually lead to a properly constituted the GCB,” Singh stated.
The release further indicated that the system is clearly flawed and has created much contention as some Associations scramble up “makeshift teams” and create “phantom clubs” for sole purpose of increasing their voter representation. In 2003, the outcome of the DCB elections resulted in court action. Justice Aubrey Bishop eventually arbitrated in that matter and presented his judgment which established that the GCA and the ECCB had more voting delegates than the EBDCA and WDCA. Again in 2010, the outcome of the DCB elections ended up in court with two factions claiming to be the rightful Demerara board.
“Only the established clubs would be recognized and the “phantom clubs” would be removed from the equation,” the press release indicated.
Meanwhile, Singh said that based on the stakeholder sessions, the Upper Demerara Cricket Association was recommended to be part of the voter representation of DCB constituent members.
Marvin Burns, a member of the Upper Demerara Cricket Association said that the association welcomed the move, since they were seeking membership of the DCB for the past ten years. He indicated that this is the right time to deal with the issue since parliament is dealing with the current administration bill. “We are suffering due to the problems in cricket, we will not accept being run by the East Bank Demerara Cricket Association, Upper Demerara can manage themselves”, he added.
President of the Georgetown Cricket Association, Roger Harper disclosed that this is a good opportunity to fix the cricket fiasco.
“Now that there is a selective committee in parliament, I think there should be a permanent solution to both the DCB and GCB issues,” Harper informed.
The release further stated all properties which were once owned by the Demerara Cricket Board are now transferred over to a private limited liability company bearing the name DCB Inc. without the knowledge and consent of the stakeholders of Demerara cricket.

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