Letter to the Sports Editor…Cricketers and enthusiasts of Essequibo supported the cricket petition

Dec 21, 2013 Sports

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Dear Editor,
As the Chairman of the North Essequibo Cricket Committee and former President of the Essequibo Cricket Board, please permit me to respond to Mr. Fizul Bacchus’ letter captioned ‘MR. LUMUMBA, THE ‘’STAKEHOLDERS’’ AND GOV’T SHOULD ALL APOLOGISE’ which appeared in the Kaieteur Newspaper dated 2013-12-16. It is quite obvious that Mr. Bacchus’ letter on behalf of the Essequibo Cricket Board and by extension the Guyana Cricket Board was purposely intended to mislead the general public when he stated that 7/8 of Essequibo did not support the cricket petition which was presented to Parliament by Mr. Odinga Lumumba, MP on 2013-12-12.
This is far from the truth since North Essequibo, cricketers and enthusiasts from Central Essequibo, South Essequibo, Wakenaam, Leguan and the Pomeroon, which incidentally is the constituency of Mr. Bacchus, overwhelmingly supported the petition which amounted to over 700 petitioners. It is evident therefore that supporters of the petition came from six out of the eight area committees of the ECB. Is Mr. Bacchus implying that because he did not sign as Chairman of the Pomeroon Cricket Committee or Mr. Christiani as Chairman of the Central Cricket Committee meant that there was no support from those areas?  This is only a fabrication of his deceitful attempt since the two committees are detrimentally one-man organizations without a proper financial balance sheet since they account to no one.  The Committees have not held statutory meetings for several years.
I was personally involved in securing magnanimous support for the petition since the present scenario at the GCB is bereft of transparency, legitimacy and inclusivity of the majority of stakeholders of cricket in Guyana. I took time-off to traverse from Charity to Supenaam highlighting the petition to various stakeholders of cricket and they were all in unanimous support especially the cricketers from Charity, Cotton Field, Affiance, Queenstown and the Pomeroon, areas that have not played competitive cricket or had formal meetings for almost a year because of the poor leadership and virtually the non-appearance of neither Mr. Christiani nor Mr. Bacchus to those areas while they continue to serve as Secretary and President of the ECB respectively.
Mr. Christiani is also the Administrator of the ECB but never occupied the office situated at the Hostel, yet he receives a monthly salary. I wonder who approves his salary and for what performance?  In fact the Essequibo Cricket Board suffers the same fate and continues to erode the confidence of the cricketers because of a non- existent selection policy inclusive of incompetent selectors who never played for the county or committee, lack of sponsors for major tournaments, a depressed cricketing environment, no coaching seminars for the youths and the gradual destruction of the cricket Hostel that is now being frequently used to host other activities without a cent being spent for its rehabilitation.
These are the issues that Mr. Bacchus should have taken time-off to address instead of ascertaining who would have supported the petition. In any case he was misled by his very constituent members because of their inactivity which would have led to their ignorance of the petition. Mr. Bacchus must also declare his involvement as a Director following the secrecy of the creation of the little known DEB ESSENTIALS INCOPORATED, a company hastily set up by individuals purported to represent the three counties, hence the acronym DEB. Mr. Bacchus was never authorized to hold shares in his personal name on behalf of the ECB, now claiming to be his private assets that he accused the Government of attempting to revoke. How can he possibly own the assets of the ECB? This company needs to be thoroughly investigated since it is acting on behalf of the GCB which constitutionally does not exist without the constituent Demerara and Berbice Cricket Boards. Returning the assets to the legal GCB must take place in the wake of the hijacking of the Board.
I am therefore challenging Mr. Bacchus to prove that supporters from the six area committees including Pomeroon, did not sign the petition while on the other hand for him to state when last did he visited his constituent or held a cricket development meeting. In fact I was approached by a prominent Umpire who claimed that he was not paid by the Pomeroon Cricket Committee since 2010 for a final that he officiated in the Pomeroon, while the ECB still owes several umpires since 2011.
This is the inept state in which cricket has been administered in Essequibo and Mr. Bacchus should be the last person to speak on-behalf of Essequibians since he is out of touch with reality, while the cricketing fraternity has lost confidence in his(non) ability and integrity to lead the Essequibo Cricket Board(ECB). Instead Mr. Bacchus and the ECB should all apologise for misleading and misrepresenting the cricketing public of Essequibo.
Prince Holder
Chairman-NECC

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