Some members of the Interim Management Committee for cricket in Guyana said yesterday that the Ramsey Ali administration continues to mislead the public by pretending to be legitimate officials of the Guyana Cricket Board, currently a legal non-entity.
The officials, who asked to remain anonymous, opened up to this newspaper yesterday about what was discussed at last Wednesday’s IMC meeting with Sport Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony although it was noted that the ministry will control the flow of information to the media about IMC meetings.
They are of the opinion that the “Ali administration is taking advantage of the good faith of the minister by continuing to run the affairs of the GCB.”
The officials explained that discussions at the meeting pointed to all stakeholders conducting the affairs of the GCB, starting with the planning of the just-concluded Pakistan/West Indies Women’s tour to Guyana.
According to the officials the planning of that tour was done solely by members of the board and this triggered the breaking of the silence.
“As long as Ramsey Ali continues to be head of GCB we will continue to see the decline,” an official lamented, adding that “it is serving Ramsey Ali to be the head because he has no interest in fixing this problem.”
The officials said from the inception they did not want the Ali administration involved in the process. However since the minister expressed the need to have all the relevant stakeholders involved in the process of holistic development they decided to be a part. They said ever since the flawed July 10 GCB elections they had never given legitimacy to the Ali administration.
“It was in the interest of cricket and the minister’s wish to have this matter cleared up in three months and so we said to give things a chance because we (the officials) had thought that we were giving legitimacy to an illegitimate group,” they explained.
They said that with the breaking of this silence on what transpired at the meeting will be “challenging the good nature that the minister has shown.”
However, they believe that the Ali administration is operating in this manner because of “the incestuous relationship it has with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).”
Commenting on the visit of WICB President Dr. Julian Hunte two weeks ago, they said that the parent body for cricket in the region cannot continue to “operate as if it is business as usual in Guyana when the country’s cricket is in chaos.”
One official said, “The WICB president flew in and kept a meeting with an illegally installed group and fly out without consulting with other stakeholders and pronounced on the legitimacy of the GCB. It was a profound statement coming especially from the parent body and one would think that as a responsible parent they would have met with everyone, all the stakeholders.”
Meanwhile, the officials stated that a menu of measures was discussed to improve the administration of cricket at last Wednesday’s meeting.
Among the measures was the setting up of a committee tasked with putting together a five-year plan that will aid in the development of the sport and the players. Further, the officials stated that when the IMC is formed it is expected that the problems that have plagued the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) will be solved so that officials can go back to the “business of cricket.”
It was noted that the officials agreed to some of the terms that were discussed at that meeting but this is not the case at this time. They said that they are especially looking forward to the “broad-based plan that was outlined for the running of cricket in the next three months.”
According to officials it was discussed that a committee will be formed to conduct a forensic audit of the GCB accounts. Also discussed was a possible committee to set up a legislative framework that will be taken to parliament and a committee that deals with the constitutional reform for the Guyana, Berbice, Demerara and Essequibo Cricket Boards.
These bodies were labeled as legal non-entities and were deemed as having no legal personalities.
