President of the Leguan Cricket Committee Sheik Fazal this week accused some cricket officials of sabotage and running a smear campaign against him before the GCB elections next month. Fazal alleged that several senior cricket officials visited Leguan over the weekend to campaign for the GCB elections in January. According to Fazal the officials went the island and “tried to overthrow him by telling people that he is a thief and that he is not running the Board properly.”
Further, Fazal charged that the officials tried to conduct elections to “knock him from the position” because he was not in support of current Essequibo Cricket Board President Sheik Ahmad. Ahmad has since denied to Stabroek Sport being engaged in any smear campaign against Fazal. Fazal added that while the officials contacted him on their visit to the island in the Essequibo River the damage had already been done with their smear campaign.
Fazal stated that the officials went to Leguan to also “resurrect old clubs” to vote against him, adding that “they (officials) smear my name before asking me to support (a candidate) for president of GCB.”
Fazal declared that he had become disenchanted with the presidency of Ahmad and therefore will not be supporting him for president of Essequibo nor a position in the GCB.
Fazal believes that the move by the officials was well orchestrated since it was realised that some officials affiliated to the ECB have no confidence in Ahmad. He said that the plan of the visit and the subsequent smear campaign was to have people in the ECB and its sub-divisions “that will support them when the GCB elections come in January.”
Current, longstanding president of the GCB, Chetram Singh, announced last week that he will not be running for another term.
Each County – Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice- is entitled to nine votes and with Essequibo swaying towards one particular candidate and his associates they can put up a strong fight against prospective presidential candidates, especially with a divided Demerara Cricket Board (DCB).
Commenting on the allegation by the officials, Fazal stated that his committee has been submitting quarterly reports to the ECB. He said that when they voted to have Ahmad as president of ECB it was because the sub-associations wanted a change in the way things were being done in Essequibo.
However, Fazal charged that “up to now Ahmad has not fulfilled his mandate.”
Meanwhile, Stabroek Sport spoke to representative of the Noitgedacht Cricket Club (NCC) and former member of the ECB, Trevor Stewart who said that “Essequibo gone to the dogs,” adding that “two or three years ago the state of cricket was better in Essequibo.”
He contended that nepotism was the order of the day with the ECB and “nobody really has the development of the game and players” at heart.
This, he believes, is the “biggest downfall of Essequibo cricket.”
“If I know a friend or family and I do you a favour that is the way you get position in Essequibo, nobody has the players or the game in mind. Everybody looking for position, nobody looking for development,” Stewart stated.
Ceased
He also indicated that “financial-wise” he does not know “how money is being spent” in the county, adding that money was handed over to the ECB to run a two-day competition prior to the Senior Inter-County Four-day tournament last month but after two rounds the competition ceased. He said that since the completion was not being played the ECB should have encamped the players before the Inter-County competition to give them better preparation. Stewart asked: “Is this the way how our cricket will develop in Essequibo and people wonder why we are not performing properly in competitions?”
Stewart also mentioned that he is not satisfied with the presidency of Ahmad, adding that he has not called elections as yet because he has already “dirty his waters.”
He said that Ahmad, who is also the president of the Wakenaam Cricket Club, has been “bobbing and weaving” to hold elections since he knows that he may be no match for other candidates who may wish to oppose him.
When Stabroek Sport contacted Ahmad he said that he was in Leguan on Saturday but the campaigning by the officials was clean. He said that since elections are rapidly approaching everybody is campaigning but at no time was there a smear campaign against Fazal, especially since he has no ill feelings towards the man. When asked why liaise with the WCDCB rather than the DCB he said that he and the president of that body do not see eye to eye and “their differences might end up in the courts.” He emphasised that that the ECB has always had a good relationship and it was closer in terms of geographical location.
Responding to some of the claims of Essequibo officials he said that he has done nothing wrong but persons have been tarnishing his image for sometime now. He pointed out though that he tries to avoid being personal but that seems to be the modus operandi of many persons, “even in the GCB”.
Ahmad stated that he has done nothing wrong and he has always run the affairs of the ECB with the limited resources he had been given. He said that there were never any legitimate claims of financial improprieties and that persons are always “looking for an opportunity to gain cheap, political mileage.”
Ahmad continued: “Persons have always tried to cast doubt and aspersion to taint my image. I don’t see cricket is worse in Essequibo than three years ago when there are more competitions being run now and we have been producing cricketers at the youth level.”
