Letter to the Sports Editor...PPP and APNU playing Russian roulette with our cricketers and footballers

Letter to the Sports Editor…PPP and APNU playing Russian roulette with our cricketers and footballers

Jun 08, 2014 Sports

Dear Editor,
Our politicians are flirting dangerously with the stringent ICC and FIFA rules and regulations regarding political interference that govern our national sports of cricket and football and are hell bent on risking the livelihoods of these athletes should they be banned by the Regional and International bodies.
The two main political parties in Guyana, PPP and APNU, have decided to throw caution to the wind in their quest to wrest power from independent bodies that currently administer the games of cricket and Football in Guyana. These two games are very near and dear to the hearts and minds of our Guyanese populace and these parties have formed an unholy alliance which can only cost them both very scarce political capital should they continue along this pathway.
The Government of Guyana does absolutely nothing to support these two sporting administrations in Guyana but its plans on hijacking control of the Guyana Cricket Board and the Guyana Football Federation and installing their chosen heirs in the lead up to local and general elections speaks volumes about the control freaks that we are dealing with.
The ruling party obviously thinks that they can use these two sporting entities in its political campaigns for those elections and they have now placed these entities in the precarious position of being banned by the ICC and FIFA. Our politicians have made a serious blunder with this sad and selfish proposition. These two influential sporting entities are very serious regarding political interference in the administration and governance of their respective sporting disciplines and will not tolerate the games of brinksmanship that these politicians are accustomed to playing. Only an irresponsible bunch of politicians would risk the sporting future of its youths in the country in their commission of political suicide.
The GOG needs to back off from the Cricket Administration Bill which has not yet been assented to for several reasons. The Bill is totally illegal, contradictory and unconstitutional and seeks to impose constitutions on bodies which have been in existence for decades and which were not guided nor agreed upon by its memberships. It interferes with an administrative structure which has worked successfully over the years. It also seeks to fix legal results for which our Attorney General lost in the judicial system to his counterpart whom he has now employed since he assumed the position of AG.
The ruling party seems to have outmanoeuvred APNU in influencing them to support the Cricket Administration Bill, whilst they have also been quietly using their henchmen, Messrs Odinga Lumumba and Alfred King, to grab power at the GFF level. Very soon, we will witness the GFF becoming embroiled in a similar situation regarding legal issues and widespread confusion. FIFA will not stand idly by with any form of political interference by the GOG.
The Government should research what FIFA did in Belize, a CARICOM state, when the Government there decided that the Sports Commission will have jurisdiction over the Local Football Federation.
As was expected, we have now seen the WICB taking a strong stand against the actions of the PPP and APNU in Parliament in the passage of the ill fated Cricket Administration Bill. Both parties have their own henchmen in the disgruntled group that wants to hijack cricket and football administration in Guyana aided and abetted by politicians in both the PPP and APNU.
Our country is facing so much hardship in other areas of our economy but the politicians are prioritizing areas in which they can only commit political suicide.
Should Guyana, a country that has produced so many cricketing greats not been given the rights to host regional or international tournaments hereafter, the careers of everyone involved in the game, from players to officials (including the young and up coming umpires) will suffer.
Yours Truly,
Ramesh Takur

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Letter to the Sports Editor…PPP and APNU playing Russian roulette with our cricketers and footballers

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