It was the Canadian High Commission’s refusal last year to grant a team of cricketers visas that alerted some members of the executive of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) that something was amiss in the issuing of letters to cricketers in support of their visa applications.
“I was shocked because the people said we already have so many applications with letters from the board and I said to myself how they could have all these letters,” a source close to the board told Stabroek News recently.
Stabroek News understands that the team was expected travel to Canada to be part of an annual cricket festival played in that country and it was a shock that the entire team was turned down. It was the first time that something of that nature occurred.
“It was not only shocking but it certainly did not augur well for the board,” another source told this newspaper.
Following the refusal of the visas, assistant treasurer of the board Pretipaul Jaigobin called ‘Jai’ and others demanded an explanation and after a heated meeting a three-man team was appointed to investigate the issuing of letters.
“All this was going on but people did not want to alert the media, they were looking at the image of the board and trying to sort things out among themselves but since Jai get burn (with acid) people had to speak out,” a source told this newspaper.
Jaigobin was burnt with acid on May 25th by a man and he and others have since said the attack was a result of his queries and because he was never one to rest whenever he observed wrongdoing in the board’s finances and generally in its operations. Since the incident, there have been several revelations including a $26M hike to the cost for the construction of the LBI hostel and the fact that the hostel along with one at Anna Regina already has defects. The allegations resulted in Minister of Sport, Frank Anthony summoning the executive to a meeting and it was decided that the Office of the Auditor General would audit the board’s finances and the hostels would be examined by experts to determine whether the board got value for money and also to pronounce on the soundness of both structures.
Stabroek News was told that at a board meeting a request was made for the number of visa letters that were issued for the period and a definitive answer was not given by the two members who were authorized to sign the letters. After the conflicting answers the three-man team was appointed to ascertain how many letters were issued.
‘When they checked it was only twenty-eight letters and just the names of the persons were listed and Jai took the time to go through every single name to verify whether they had played for Guyana and he not only found out that two did not but also that one of them was a relative of a board member,” a source said.
According to reports the assistant treasurer raised the issue and at every meeting demanded that the list of all of the persons who were issued letters be provided but this was not done.
The source said of critical importance whenever Jaigobin raised the issues, many on the board would just sit by silently “and not speak out against them and so people just continue to do what they want without regards.”
Minister Anthony at last Tuesday’s meeting advised the board members to write letters to the Canadian High Commission and the US Embassy assuring them that the board will get its records up to standard on all those persons who have played cricket for Guyana to ensure that only those persons receive letters of support for visas.
