Boston bares the cricket facts in response to Alvin Johnson and Intikab Sankar

Aug 31, 2013 Sports

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Dear Editor,
I must once again seek your kind permission in allowing me to deal with two (2) letters responding to my previous missive carried in your daily.  In order to save time and space I will herein deal with the letters from both Alvin Johnson and Intikab Sankar.
Firstly, Winston G. Boston is my real name. I am no phantom.  I have been an avid sports fan from early childhood and played football, cricket and hockey for the Guyana Police Force. I also served as secretary of Malteenoes Sports Club, the Mildred Mansfield Sports Club, the Guyana National Dominoes Association, Public Relations Officer of the Guyana Scrabble Association, Vice-President of Pele Football Club, Guystac Sport Organiser and Manager of U15, U19, 1st and 2nd division cricket teams at Malteenoes Sports Club.
I attended numerous seminars, meetings and other activities and elections of cricket in Berbice, Essequibo and Demerara and also Linden.  In view of my vested interest in the transparency, accountability and general fair play in sports, and with particular concern for the present cricket fiasco I feel compelled to express my views. My criticisms are based on but not limited to the following facts:
1.  That a group led by Anand Sanasie , Raj Singh and others through unethical manoeuvres  at the East Bank of Demerara and the West Demerara Cricket Associations and through elections hijacked the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) and subsequently the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB).  I was in court when Justice James Bovell-Drakes in making the injunction interlocutory clearly stated that the Raj Singh faction must not act but must await the outcome of the trial.  Nevertheless that order was violated by this presumptuous group.
2. I was at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) in Jan 2011 when Chetram Singh the then President of GCB, at its AGM, refused admission to Raj Singh’s faction to participate in the meeting.  They left and with Berbice not participating in the election, only Essequibo Cricket Board plus David Black a Berbice Board defector made up the unprecedented 10-member quorum which was unconstitutional thereby making the GCB Executive of those elections an illegal body.
3. I have seen legal documents signed by Anand Sanasie and filed in the Court Registry admitting that the assets of both the GCB and the DCB have been deposited into private companies owned by Anand Sanasie, Fizul Bacchus, and Raj Singh.  Evidently the decision to form private companies was made by only the Essequibo Cricket Board. It is important to note that this illegality continued and flourished at a time when the cricket crisis was rife and when the Berbice Cricket Board under Keith Foster, the Georgetown Cricket Association under Roger Harper and the East Cost Cricket Board under Bissoondyal Singh had no say as they were totally and deliberately excluded by the hijackers of Guyana cricket.
4. With regard to the Parliamentary process, I recognize that with the ongoing cricket crisis, legislation was necessary and must take into consideration the cause of our recurring problem within the cricket administration. It is inconceivable that the highest law making forum in our country, in its noble effort to bring order to the chaos in cricket, would legalise an inherent problem and not address a remedy.  But of course the Sanasie-led group prefer things as they are so that phantom clubs and the lawlessness could continue.  To state that Dr. Frank Anthony and Attorney General Anil Nandlall ought not to have sat on the Select Committee insults the integrity of these goodly gentlemen and dismisses the active and genuine participation of the other members of the Select Committee viz. Khemraj Ramjattan, Basil Williams, Neil Kumar, Odinga Lumumba, Rupert Roopnarine, Joseph Harmon and Colin Jones.  Also, cries that the Select Committee ignored their submissions are countered by the fact that the Sanasie / Raj Singh group submitted forged documents and inaccurate information to the Select Committee for which the police was called in are conducting active investigations.
Nevertheless the Chairman and Members of the Select Committee can represent themselves and in my opinion will produce a document that will offer fairness and a transparent process that involves all the stakeholders who will then decide on who they want to head the cricket administration. The present indecent and illegal persons who have hijacked the GCB are clearly scared of the outcome of this orderly and legal process.
Alvin Johnson’s selfish attempt to extricate himself from the cricket illegality and indecency cannot fool anyone but himself.  I reiterate that Johnson’s appointment had nothing to do with his qualifications, but rather, like his cohorts, he was rewarded for the role played by Essequibo in electing an illegal GCB.  Anyone who gets involved in cricket administration at any level purely for personal and financial gain pose a danger to the decency and integrity of our national game.
So if I am perceived to be the mouthpiece of a so called “disgruntled group” I will certainly prefer to be so labelled for as far as I know members of that group are all decent, gainfully employed and humble citizens who have never been charged for any serious crime, including contempt of court, perjury or presenting forged or misleading documents to Parliament.
I would rather be the mouthpiece for a disgruntled group than for a “dishonest group”.
Whether Johnson or Sankar choose to respond to this letter is their business. I will however respond to their shenanigans and misleading articles.
While I known Johnson, I must say that I have never made the acquaintance of the elusive Intikab Sankar who appears to be a phantom.  Since Intikab Sankar is so an au fait with cricket issues I challenge him to meet me “one-on-one” on Edwin Seeraj’s Cricket Magazine Programme where we can objectively discuss cricket and its future in Guyana.
Winston G. Boston

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