DCB corrects the GCA & ECCB once and for all

Mar 24, 2013 Sports

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Dear Editor,
Reference is made to a most insolent letter appearing in the KN & GT on 3/22/13 purportedly penned by the heads of the GCA & ECCB. It has now reached a stage where DCB is compelled to respond to these repeated inaccuracies being peddled by these individuals and defend its cricket-oriented position for the records, once and for all.
The Demerara Cricket Board duly planned for its 2013 Under-15 Inter Association competition and invited the 4 Area Associations to name their respective squads.
The GCA & ECCB, in their usual boisterous style, blatantly refused to comply with the invitation for their squads’ submission and they are now proudly disassociating themselves from the teams selected from their own areas.
Actually they should be ashamed to be adopting such reckless and ill-advised actions which are clearly very myopic and shortsighted and are only designed to hurt the youths in their respective areas. How can they justify refusing to allow these youths from pursuing their cricket careers? Even if they have issues with the administrative authority in Demerara, they need to fight those matters in the appropriate forum and not use the youths of our country as their political football. This competition has just concluded and the DCB will continue with its mandate to promote and develop the youths in the county of Demerara and, in this regard, will very shortly be organizing the Inter Association Under-19 competition and would like to encourage all Area Associations to let good sense prevail and continue to execute the mandate from their respective constituents by selecting their squads for these tournaments in a timely manner.
If we are to follow the skewed logic of these guys, no cricket should be played in Guyana once it is not administered by certain individuals.  Christopher Barnwell would not have represented Guyana at the T20s thus denying him the chance to be at this year’s IPL; Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Romario Shepherd, Gudakesh Motie, Ricardo Adams and Shemroy Hetemeyer all would have been at home playing marbles instead of being at the current WICB Under-19 encampment in preparation for the Under-19 World Cup.
I am actually relieved that the focus has now shifted towards the DCB, the epicenter of this entire manufactured cricket crisis spearheaded by this same group, as this is where it has to be solved. Lest these goodly gentlemen succeed further in misleading the public, I would like to gently remind them how we all got here in the first place.
It all started even before Mr. Chetram Singh, former President of the GCB, formally announced his decision in 2009 not to seek re-election in 2011. The fight for that poisoned chalice position has seen no end in sight so far. Three persons announced their intentions to vie for this position since then including the ubiquitous Mr. Bissoondyal Singh (then the President of the DCB). Hereunder, I would quickly outline for the benefit of the general public the devious and dishonest maneuvers at the DCB level that led us to this sorry state of affairs:
-Which 3 out of 4 (75%) Area Associations filed a no confidence motion against Mr. Bissoondyal Singh as President of the DCB in December 2009.
-Which attorney represented (or was it misrepresented?) Mr. Bissoondyal in our Supreme Courts using an incorrect constitution to secure an Order to stop this no confidence motion from proceeding? The Honourable Judge was misled by the constitution filed in this matter which stated the tenure of Office to be 1 year to expire in January 2010 when the tenure of Office was changed a few years prior to 2 years. This seems to be a clear case of perjury.
-Why did Mr. Bissoondyal approach the Court, once again in November 2010, seeking to throw out 6 of his Executives of the DCB (perceived to be against him), for failing to attend “meetings”, that were not actually meetings since they were never convened for lack of a quorum, in his preparation for the DCB’s AGM that was fast approaching in January 2011? He failed in the Court this time as he was duly challenged by the 6 Execs of the DCB and the Judge was not misled.
– Why did Mr. Bissoondyal Singh again dictatorially tried to throw out 3 Execs out of the full complement of 13 (under the perception that he had support for his decisions by 5 other Execs there present) from participating in the court appointed Executive Committee Meeting of January 18th 2011 ordered by the Chief Justice to fix the date, venue, etc for the AGM later in that said month? There is video evidence of this entire meeting which has been aired a few times already on some channels and is still available for scrutiny.
These are the chronological sequence of events that the media needs to thoroughly investigate so that the public can be properly informed of the true facts of our manufactured cricket crisis and the adopted pathway to power at the GCB.
It is public knowledge that Mr. Bissoondyal Singh defied the democratic process and decisions taken through a resolution read and passed at the said court ordered DCB Exec Meeting and proceeded to hold another AGM throwing the DCB into total chaos, and subsequently, the entire cricketing fraternity. Resulting from this deplorable behavior and the confusion that reined afterwards, Mr. Krishnchand Mangal approached the Court in February 2011and was duly granted an injunction against Mr. Bissoondyal Singh and 12 others from pretending to be the Execs of the DCB. These Orders are attached for your scrutiny and evidence against the Defendants: Bissoondyal Singh, Roger Harper, Pretipaul Jaigobin, Davteerth Anandjit, Samaroo Jailall, Edward Richmond, Nigel Bissu, Neil Barry, Shawn Massiah, Manoj Narayan, Claude Raphael & Ronald Williams.
Mr. Bissoondyal Singh then re-approached the Courts in April 2011, obviously unhappy with their verdict, but only succeeded in having the Injunctive Order made interlocutory and with the applicant in the matter, Mr. Mangal giving an undertaking that he would not act as the DCB. Later in 2011, Mr. Harper approached the Court to find that the DCB was in contempt of court but hastily withdrew that matter. Perhaps he can shed some light on that situation rather than co-authoring contradictory statements.
These are the clear and unbridled facts and the DCB has been the collateral damage in the quest for power by this individual who is trying to make himself out to be some paragon of virtue and righteousness. History will be the judge of these persons.
I would urge the Select Committee of the 10th Parliament to carefully examine the facts presented herein before making judgments or decisions regarding the DCB and as stated in my written submissions on behalf of the DCB, the Select Committee should await the outcome of these court matters before proceeding with the proposed legislation regarding the administration of cricket in Guyana.
Raj Singh, President-DCB

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