Letter to the Sports Editor…GCB/ECB dodge Raphael’s questions on Drubahadur’s registration

May 23, 2017 Sports

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2.5 Billion dollars GCB assets transferred to private company

Dear Sports Editor,
My recent request for Drubahadur to publicly account for his stewardship of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) has elicited a scathing attack on my reputation by the virtual one-man GCB and the impotent Essequibo Cricket Board. Instead of answering my questions asked of Drubahadur, they unleashed a spate of nonsensical vitriol of no verifiable substance. The personal attack against me is a ruse deliberately employed to evade answering my questions. Drubahadur for his part appears to be too scared and incapable of defending himself.
Since I have no intention of engaging is any form of mud-slinging I will only deal briefly with the following pertinent issues.
1. The 2011 AGM/Election was illegal since there was no quorum as was clearly stated by Chief Justice (Ag) Ian Chang in his ruling on the matter of Angela Haniff vs Ramsey Ali / GCB).
It is important to note that the press, for the very first time, was deliberately prevented from attending the meeting while only a privately-hired videographer covered the proceedings.
2. The Cricket Administration Act 2014 (CAA) evolved from the very ruling by Chief Justice Ian Chang (Ag) that Guyana’s cricket was administered by legal non-entities that lacked persona and therefore needed to be made legal entities. In consequence he recommended that Government sets up an Interim Management Committee (IMC) to oversee the short-term resolution of the current cricket crisis and legislature as the long term remedy. The IMC held country-wide meetings/consultations with all and sundry in Berbice, Essequibo and Demerara including Linden. The information gathered was collated and presented to Parliament for consideration and consolidation into the proposed Bill before being passed into law.
3. Parliament in its wisdom sent the proposed Bill to a Select Committee which also held nation-wide interviews and received submissions from all Boards, Associations, Clubs, and individuals including the Guyana Cricket Board and both factions of the DCB before presenting their final document for passing into law.
This Parliamentary Select Committee comprised Dr. Frank Anthony, Mr. Anil Nandlall, Mr. Neil Kumar, Mr. Odinga Lumumba, Dr. Rupert Roopnarine, Mr. Basil Williams, Mr. Joseph Harmon, Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan and Mr. Christopher Jones. All are eminent and capable gentlemen who are still Members of Parliament but now functioning on reverse sides of the floor and still responsible for taking our country forward. They sat for twenty-two meetings, held countless interviews and did an excellent job to produce the Cricket Administration Act.
4. It is quite preposterous of the GCB and their cohorts to keep misleading the nation in almost every letter to the press that Claude Raphael and the entire Cricket Stakeholders of Guyana were in some conspiracy with Jagdeo/Nandlall to take over Guyana’s cricket. This is clearly being peddled to gain sympathy from the current Government.
Contrary to the misleading headline of the GCB’s response, it is absolutely clear that the President of GCB is the automatic choice for representing Guyana on the WICB; see article #17 (a) of the CAA. They seem to prefer continuing the current lawlessness instead of enforcing the Cricket Law.
5. Referring to the Jadgeo/Nandall meeting with the GCB, the Stakeholders and the Raj Singh faction of the DCB, it must be noted that every proposal made by Mr. Jadgeo was in favour of the GCB. I will list some:
a) He suggested that we all come together with four from our group and eight from the GCB to form the new GCB. This suggestion actually meant handing over the Board to the GCB. We rejected that offer.
b) Our group had recommended that the code of ethics of the Cricket Law should include a clause that precludes any person charged with treason, murder etc or living out of Guyana from being a member of the GCB and from representing this country on the WICB. This suggestion was disappointingly rejected by the then government since its omission could not be of benefit to anyone on our team.
c) Mr. Neil Kumar then Director of Sport is on record as publicly stating that his Government is giving unflinching support to the GCB.
We are well aware that the GCB has an array of fence-straddlers who claim that they recognise the CAA as the law of the land yet conveniently violate its tenets. Upper Demerara is still to be allowed to participate as a bona fide association within the GCB framework with hundreds of talented cricketers, both male and female, being deliberately sidelined. Berbice, East Coast and Georgetown are being subjected to regular and strategic subversive actions including the denial of subventions for cricket development.
Players are being taken from these areas and projected as the products of the GCB. Meanwhile, the areas of East Bank, West Bank and Essequibo have had diminishing returns with regards to cricket organization, development and production but hold all the senior administration positions.
I refer to Sean Devers Kaieteur News article dated Sat 13th May, 2017, lamenting the state of Guyana’s cricket in general and women’s cricket in particular. What a shame! Of course while Raphael is not the author of this article it is the same sorry tale for years but nobody seems to care. Our young cricketers are now left “out in the cold”. Also the photograph of the so called AGM of January 2017 shows a photo of six purported GCB Executives. Where are the other seven to make up the GCB executive of thirteen? That photo tells the whole tale of a failed cricket administration. Why was there no photograph of those in attendance to support their misleading claim? Once again the press was locked out from this purported AGM and therefore could not report on the facts but only what the GCB released to the media.
Here are the critical questions I asked of Drubahadur and which have not being answered by the GCB, the ECB and Drubahadur himself:
1. How, where, when and who voted for his election to the Presidency of the GCB.
2. Definitively when he resigned from the GCB and the real reason for so doing, especially since he seem so vague on this issue approximately two (2) months after it was supposed to have occurred.
3. In clear terms what were his major contributions (lows and highs) during his term of office.
4. What legal mechanism was utilized to transfer all the assets (conservatively valued at $2.5 billion dollars) to the privately-owned group named Cricket Guyana Inc. No 6850 formerly-named D.E.B Essentials Organisation Inc. Also, Drubahadur must explain who is holding the Berbice Cricket Board’s shares in the Cricket Guyana Inc. since the incorporation document shows that shares for the Essequibo Cricket Board are held in the name of Fizul Bacchus and for the Demerara Board in the name of Raj Singh.
5. By what legal authority were Mr. Chetram Singh and Mr. Lionel Jaikarran empowered to effect such a transfer of the GCB assets to a private body.
The transferring of our state assets to the private company Cricket Guyana Inc. has been reported to the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) by Cricket Stakeholders across Guyana. It is only natural that actions will be taken by SARA and the Special Organized Crime Unit to recover and return these assets to the people of Guyana. Free and transparent elections of the GCB and its membership must occur immediately. The nation deserves no less.
Claude Raphael
Former Executive of the GCB
Former Director of the WICB

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