Letter to the Sports Editor…Claude Raphael continues with his mission of misinformation and confusion

Oct 05, 2017 Sports

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(Continued from yesterday)

Dear Sports Editor,
This is the remainder of Raj Singh’s response to Claude Raphael’s letter.
Raphael’s tenure
Raphael has been a major part of the cricket administration structure at various levels of cricket within Demerara, Guyana and the West Indies for the past few decades and had become accustomed to wielding tremendous power through his various positions on these Boards. So much so that he cannot pen a letter without making reference to his former status on these various boards. Raphael has also served as the Chairman of selectors at the GCB for more than a decade prior to July 2011 and (I think) served a single term as a WICB Director (2007 to 2009). Perhaps Raphael can elaborate for the public at large on his contribution to the development of cricket during his decades of reign on these various Boards and compare them to the present Board’s achievements in only the last 3 to 4 years. Incidentally, he was also the Chairman of the Cricket Development Committee of the GCB for quite a number of years during his tenure.
Cricket Administration Act
Many times Mr. Raphael could be seen sleeping at cricket matches and at various Committee meetings. Perhaps this was the case at the WICB/GCB/GOG meeting in June 2014 during the discussions surrounding the Guyana Cricket Administration Act when the corrections/amendments were agreed upon between the esteemed attorneys present. These corrections/amendments were fully ventilated and dealt with in a meticulous manner by the legal luminaries present there. Those attorneys included Queens Counsel Walter Scott, Roysdale Forde, Stephen Fraser and the then AG, Anil Nandalall. I challenge Raphael to produce the recording of that meeting to disprove my contention herein. It was further agreed that the President would have assented to the Act on July 15th 2014 and the amendments would have been tabled and passed the next day in Parliament. The amendment was intended to correct all the anomalies, deficiencies and numerous flaws contained within the said Act.
The biggest flaw in the Act is the section that deals with elections of the GCB. Perhaps he will also deny that a MOU was even drafted which was intended to be signed by the Parliamentary parties with whom the WICB/GCB delegation met with after the meeting but the MOU was stonewalled by the Government. This was the second such occasion of the Government refusing to arrive at a compromise solution to the manufactured cricket crises. The first scuttled MOU involved WICB/GOG with Caricom as the facilitator.
Alleged $2.5B GCB assets transfer
Raphael has continued to peddle his blatant lies and innuendoes which are aimed at tarnishing the reputation of the executive of the GCB. Just for the record, I will now list the properties that are owned by the GCB.
– A four storied building situated at the GCC ground used by the GCB as its offices and storage (formerly sponsors’ hospitality boxes) built at a cost of G$30m a few years ago.
– Another four storied building situated on the northern side of the ground that was used as the former media building when international cricket was being played at that venue built just after the first building above for just about the same cost.
– A two storied building used as a hostel, indoor practice facility, meeting room, kitchen, etc situated at LBI, ECD built at a cost of just over G$100m in 2010.
– A two storied building used as a hostel situated at Anna Regina, Essequibo built at a cost of about $30m just after the LBI hostel.
– The Stanford facility located at GNIC which was built for G$10m I am told.
I am aware that Mr. Raphael is a realtor by profession and I am sure that the GCB would be extremely appreciative if he can convert these properties described above into the G$2.5B he so often bandies about even after taking into consideration the inflationary aspect of the buildings’ values. It should be noted that all of these buildings were constructed on leased land owned by other entities. None of these properties stand in the name of any Executive member of the Board or were ever converted for our personal use. We are merely temporary custodians and representatives of the various entities during our tenure in Office.
Malicious report to Police
One final issue that I would like to deal with concerns a report that was made against me by the Clerk of the National Assembly to the CID alleging that I tendered a fraudulent document. This document was attached as part of the Demerara Cricket Board’s submission to the Select Committee of Parliament. That document is a single page hand written cricket fixtures for East Coast cricket purportedly signed by a Mr. D. Anandjit. That document was not created by myself but was simply a record in my files when I served as the Secretary of the DCB and formed part of our submission to the Select Committee. I am happy to say that this report was thoroughly investigated by Detective Reid from the CID including handwriting specimens and I was fully exonerated from any wrongdoing whatsoever.
In fact, the tables were turned when Detective Reid attempted to properly conclude his investigations into this matter by reaching out to some leading members of Raphael’s disgruntled group for handwriting specimens but they continue to remain elusive. Since Raphael is so concerned about this particular investigation, I would urge him to exercise his leadership within his group to have his colleagues report to the Detective so that he can conclude his investigations into this matter. These malicious actions were just meant to harass innocent individuals and to be used as future propaganda and defamation of character and reputation of these persons. This matter was designed to give the perception that Raj Singh was under investigation for some serious criminal conduct.
From the above it is patently obvious now that his ouster from the WICB directorship has caused him tremendous grief and pain and was the genesis for the entire disruption to our cricket administration in Guyana.
I have addressed a lot of Mr. Raphael’s reckless and malicious remarks and trust that the media would in future investigate the contents of his wild imagination before they resort to its publication. This is my last correspondence on these issues.
Yours faithfully,
Raj Singh.

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