With just two days before the arrival of the Pakistanis for the Digicel home series with the West Indies, fresh turmoil among members of the GCB executive has surfaced, prompting Registrar of the Friendly Societies Kareem Abdul-Jabar to convene a meeting “to clarify the allegations”.
However, this meeting did not come off since key members of the GCB executive did not turn up.
According to Abdul-Jabar yesterday, he was informed that the GCB is only being run by a few executives, days prior to the first match between West Indies and Pakistan on May 5 at the Guyana National Stadium.
According to information reaching the Registrar, one faction which includes GCB president Chetram Singh and General Secretary Anand Sanasie, among others, is planning the Guyana aspect of the series.
The other side of the divide, which includes Vice President Bissoondyal Singh and Chairman of Selectors, Claude Raphael among others, is being kept in the dark according to information reaching Stabroek Sport.
The ongoing hurling of accusations prompted yesterday’s meeting but according to Abdul-Jabar the president’s side did not turn up, saying that they had “prior arrangements”.
Stabroek Sport tried to make contact with the president but its efforts were futile.
Abdul-Jabar said that since the GCB’s Annual General Meeting is pending then it would have been wise to follow the constitution. He pointed out that because the other faction had not turned up he failed to achieve what he had set out to do.
The Registrar stated that it is now up to him to decide how to proceed with the issues that were raised and also indicated that if the claims are justified then provisions will be made to suit “whatever course the law allows.”
Meanwhile, when asked about the report that was done on the probe of the entire operations of the GCB, Abdul-Jabar indicated that the position still remains the same. The last known position of the Ministry of Labour, which governs The Friendly Societies of which the GCB is a part, was for Minister Manzoor Nadir to meet with the executives of the Board.
This was disclosed at a press conference last month after Rupert Foster, the appointed investigator, had concluded his report. There were some concerns raised in this report and it was promised by the minister that he would have been meeting with the board after he had returned from overseas.
The greater the delay in this meeting with the GCB executives, the longer it will take for the scandal-plagued institution to hold its elections which were originally scheduled for January 30. Abdul-Jabar stated that he will not say much on this issue since he will have to be “properly advised.”
