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AFC abandons its constituencies in favour of cricket hijackers

Dec 04, 2013 Letters

 

Dear Editor
I understand that the passage of the Cricket Administration Bill 2012 (the Bill) tabled in Parliament has become stagnated. The content of this Bill has been ventilated at no less than sixteen meetings of the Parliamentary Special Select Committee (PSSC) comprising members of all three parties in Parliament. The three parties signed acknowledging the merits of the Bill. I am now informed that the AFC has decided that it will no longer support the Bill due to the following absurd excuses:
1. That the Bill does not reflect discussions held at the PSSC meetings
2. That the recent Court of Appeal ruling decision change the premise upon which the Bill was initially laid before the Parliament.
3. That the West Indies Cricket Board will not accept the legislative remedy and that there would be a removal of international cricket from Guyana.
Bearing in mind the fact that the Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board and the Barbados Cricket Association are legal entities through similar Parliamentary processes, the above excuses are flimsy and cannot be accepted as the reasons for the Alliance for Change’s (AFC) “backward somersaulting”.
With regard to item 1, if there are problems with the Bill viz a viz minutes of the PSSC meetings, the simple thing to do is to identify the areas of concern and effect the required corrections. In any case, why wasn’t proper checking and verification of each set of minutes done at the meeting following and why was the Bill signed off unanimously paving the way for the second and third readings without the concerns raised then.  This is standard practice.
With regard to item 2, the Court of Appeal (CA) ruling has nothing to do with the work of the Parliament regarding the passage of the Bill. The CA in a half page order of court has ordered that the matter be heard again by the Hon. Chief Justice Ian Chang.
Essentially, the situation remains the same as when the Bill was first tabled in 2012 and for the AFC to say otherwise is  extremus callide dolus and smacks of dishonesty.
With regard to item 3, the WICB has never indicated that there will be a removal of international cricket from Guyana but it did express ill-conceived concerns regarding the content of the Bill. The AFC, as a political party in Parliament, has a responsibility to address these concerns and must not conveniently abandon the process.
It is apparent that the real motive for the AFC new position is to support its few cohorts that have hijacked Guyana’s cricket at the expense of order, decency and transparency which the Bill seeks to provide. With free and transparent elections emanating from the Parliamentary process, the AFC’s diabolus cronies that hijacked the GCB will not find favour with the electorate.
The AFC’s calculated action is a deliberate attempt to permanently exile in excess of forty thousand (40,000) residents of Upper Demerara /Region Ten from being involved in Guyana cricket.
It is very clear that the Cricket Administration Bill 2012 seeks to provide a permanent remedy to the unacceptable chaos which presently consumes our cricket. These include three constitutions, illegal elections, financial improprieties and the lack of any structured programme for cricket development.
The Bill will provide a legal veil that will engender order, transparency and accountability to the operations of the GCB and its constituent members. There is no intent to dissolve the GCB. The WICB’s concern that the Bill seeks to dissolve the GCB is highly misplaced.
Over the years, cricket in Guyana has been a unifying experience and has contributed to our collective national identity. In this regard, cricket must be held up to the strictest of scrutiny and must at all time be projected as a clean, transparent and disciplined sport at all levels including the administrative level.
The past three years have seen our dear national game sink to an all time low.
The cricket chaos must come to an end post haste and toward this end the support and successful passage of the Guyana Cricket administration Bill in Parliament is a political imperative.
Parasnauth Seeram   LLM, Hons. London

 

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