Berbice Cricket Board holds Stakeholders Conference

Apr 26, 2018 Sports

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The Executives of the Berbice Cricket Board as part of its Meet the Club Programme on Sunday 22nd April, 2018, hosted its first every Berbice Cricket Stakeholders Conference at the Albion Sports Club. President of the Berbice Cricket Board, Hilbert Foster has made it quite clear that all major decisions concerning Berbice Cricket would only be made after consultation with Stakeholders across the entire county. The President stated that no one has a monopoly on ideas and as such every suggestions or ideas would be taken into consideration before a decision on the way forward is made.
The Berbice Cricket Board is pleased to inform the Cricketing Public that the following decisions were made at the Stakeholders Conference which was attended by the majority of Clubs in the Ancient County. The vote was unanimous and the Berbice Cricket Board as mandated by the Stakeholders of Berbice Cricket would work hard to achieve them.
a) On a recommendation from the Albion Cricket Club, delegates supported the return of the Senior Inter-County Championship between Berbice, Demerara and Essequibo. Delegates were of the opinion that the Senior Inter-County Championship was an honour for players to represent their county at the highest and should be held once again. They agreed that the Guyana Cricket Board Franchise League was a novelty idea but should not replace the historic Championship.
b) Delegates supported the call for the Guyana Cricket Board to permit the Berbicians on Cricket Contracts to train in Berbice under the supervision of a Guyana Cricket Board appointed Level II Coach. Delegates were very vocal that it was totally unfair for players to travel four days per week to Georgetown as the monthly stipend for the Academy Players are used up doing so. The usage of the Guyana Cricket Board Hostel should also be made available to the players if the first suggestion is ignored.
The Albion Cricket Ground is the most ideal venue to conduct daily training, while Berbice has numerous Gyms for the players to train. Coaches like Julian Moore, Michael Hyles, Albert Smith and Winston Smith are all Berbicians and are available to supervise the players.
c) Delegates supported the call for the end of any discrimination against players who leave the Guyana Cricket Board Cricket Academy Programme. Players are of the view that they are being blacklisted when they cancel their contracts and this should not be the case. The Berbice Cricket Board would support all of our players as they have their financial status and families to consider when making decisions.
d) Delegates also supported the call for the hosting of Inter-county matches in Berbice at the junior level. They were of the view that it was totally unfair for one team to have one hundred percentage home advantages when Berbice have venues like Albion, Blairmont, Rose Hall Canje or Skeldon to host such matches. Travelling to Blairmont is less than ninety minutes from the hostel, the same as travelling to venues over the Demerara River. With the Berbice Bridge in operation, the Guyana Cricket Board has no excuse for not bringing matches to the Ancient County.
Our players have the right to play the game at home in front of their Club mates, friends and family. The Berbice Cricket Board is confident that no sponsor would object to this as Berbicians support their businesses and deserved to be treated equally.
e) Delegates supported the Berbice Cricket Board Policy of enforcing discipline at all levels, the wearing of the proper cricket attire at all matches and the policy of focusing on Berbician players to play in Berbice Cricket Board Tournaments. Only one non-Berbician would be allowed to play in certain competitions while none would be allowed at the Second Division level.
f) Delegates supported the motion that selection for the Guyana Cricket Board Franchise League must be done properly in a transparent way with the setting up of Selection Committees for the West Berbice, New Amsterdam/Canje, Lower Corentyne and Upper Corentyne Franchise Leagues. They were of the view, that the selection policy left much to desire as one person was doing the job and was mostly bias to friends and club mates. The policy of selecting Managers and Coaches also need to be looked into, it makes sure that the most qualified persons are selected.
“The Berbice Cricket Board intends to work hard to fulfill the mandate of its Stakeholders. We would like to reassure every Berbician that they would be consulted on every major decision and that every decision taken would be done in the best interest of Berbice Cricket. The Berbice Cricket Board would also like to make it quite clear that it is not the puppet of anyone and would not be lectured to. Our mandate is to develop Berbice Cricket and would do so even if we have to raise every cent on our own. No one would be allowed to lecture us on where our office should be located, who should work for us or what we should do. Berbice Cricket belongs to Berbicians and would remain so,” a release from the BCB informed.

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