Letter to the Sports Editor...Challenge to cricket act is deliberate ploy to ostracize Linden, avoid GCB elections

Letter to the Sports Editor…Challenge to cricket act is deliberate ploy to ostracize Linden, avoid GCB elections

May 14, 2016 Sports

Dear Sports Editor,

I wish to congratulate our cricketers for performing with distinction against all odds including an incompetent and discriminating regime that has hijacked our cricket for over seven years during which time there has been no elections. Although our youngsters have done us proud, Guyanese have been finding it difficult to gain selection to the WI Test, One-Day and T20 Teams. Are we winning the battle but losing the war?
This regime has been wreaking havoc on our cricket establishment for over seven years. I am amazed that successive Governments of Guyana, the cricket fans and even sponsors could tolerate this untenable situation for so long. It is most disheartening when reputable firms sponsor youth cricket tournaments knowing fully well that our youngsters are being weaned within an environment of unaccountability, ethnic discrimination and improper cricket development programmes. Indeed our cricketers must play as much cricket as possible. However, their cricket development must coincide with their personal development so that even if they do not become successful cricketers they would be well-rounded and decent citizens.
We cannot afford to develop our youngsters under a regime where leaders engage in unbecoming practices, making the youngsters feel that it is the norm and therefore acceptable.
The continuing tenure of the GCB could be properly addressed immediately once the Attorney General, the Minister of Education & Sport and the current Government as a whole demonstrate the will or desire to restore our cricket to order by defending the challenge to the Cricket Act in court. This matter is outstanding since December 2014 and as a result free and fair elections cannot be held.
It is time for Guyana to have order, decency and accountability restored to our beloved game of cricket.
The fact remains that Anil Beharry, Keith & Hilbert Foster, Angela Haniff and the Executive body of Berbice Cricket Board (BCB), Roger Harper of the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) and Bissoondyal Singh of the East Coast Cricket Board (ECCB) are the ones to be complimented. Their steadfastness and their excellent cricket development programmes continue to produce cricketers at all levels for our country and have made us proud. They do not receive any funds from the GCB although that Board receives $640,000US per year to develop our cricket. Essequibo, West Demerara and East Bank Demerara selected the present so-called GCB officials but have precious little cricket being played in their areas and consequently have not produced any cricketers for Guyana over the past seven years. The reality is that Anand Sanasie is on the executive of the West Demerara Cricket Association for fourteen years and that Association failed to produce a single cricketer for the Senior National team. So what were the criteria used to award Sanasie with Administrator of the year? Is it for the following?
· Not holding legal elections for six (6) years
· Not circulating the GCB financial statement as must be done by law
· Distributing cricket gear on the East Coast of Demerara and excluding other clubs
· Withholding subventions from the Berbice Cricket Board, East Coast Cricket Board and the Georgetown Cricket Association for the past six (6) years.
· Registering a privately owned company and transferring all the GCB assets including all the bank accounts
The Upper Demerara Cricket Association (Linden) has been totally ostracized by the GCB with their youngsters, male and female, unable to participate in any Cricket Board tournaments because of the deliberate discriminatory action by the GCB.
Their main contention in the challenge to the Guyana Cricket Administration Act is that they do not want the inclusion of the Upper Demerara Cricket Association in the national cricket administration structure. It is therefore ironic that this callous attempt to ostracize in excess of forty thousand (40,000) Guyanese from Linden is apparently not bothersome to the powers that be.
In this regard, the incumbent National Sports Commission must explain to the nation the rationale for the recent awards to the GCB and its Secretary, Anand Sanasie having mentioned the above. I wish to remind the cricketing public of the following:
1. Minister of Education and Sport Dr. Rupert Roopnarine, Minister Joseph Harmon, Minister Kemraj Ramjattan, Attorney General Basil Williams and Director of Sport Christopher Jones sat on the Parliamentary Special Select Committee and after twenty-two meetings approved the Cricket Administration Bill unanimously.
2. It was Education & Sport Minister Dr. Roopnarine’s articulate presentation which piloted the Cricket Administration Bill through its successful passage in Parliament.
3. The Director of Sport, Mr. Christopher Jones, recently and publicly chastised the administration of the GCB and had previously stated that there should be free and fair elections of the GCB.
4. There is an outstanding challenge to the Cricket Administration Act where both the Attorney General and the Minister of Education & Sport are the defendants. These Honourable Ministers have been somewhat tardy in their efforts to defend the frivolous challenge.
Yours in Sports,
W. G. Boston