The Guyana Government issued a statement yesterday refuting claims that it has reached any consensus with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) as it relates to the roles of the Interim Management Committee and the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) as reported by Stabroek Sport yesterday.
The government statement indicated that talks between the two sides are yet to be concluded but acknowledged that the content of the article, headlined ‘Gov’t, WICB agree on roles for GCB, IMC’, was indeed the subject of discussion.
“The Government of Guyana has not reached any consensus with the West Indies Cricket Board “concerning the roles to be played by the Interim Management Committee (IMC) and the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) in the administration of cricket locally” as has been reported in the Stabroek News of January 12, 2012.
“As of yesterday, the discussions between the Government of Guyana and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) which were being mediated by the Secretary General of the Caribbean Community were yet to be concluded.
“It is regrettable therefore that the text which was being negotiated between the two sides and which has not yet been agreed on, was the subject of the article in the Stabroek News of January 12, 2012 which also carried quotes from a source to that newspaper.
The government also notes that the attorney-at-law for the WICB availed himself to be interviewed on SportsMax on January 11, 2012 on the issues that were being discussed between the Government of Guyana and the WICB,” the statement read.
According to the statement the government views this action as “particularly deplorable”, especially since it was agreed by both parties at the behest of the Secretary General of CARICOM, Irwin La Rocque that “no unilateral statements should have been made to the media on the content of the discussions while those were ongoing.”
The statement continued, “Rather there had been agreement that at the conclusion of the discussions, a joint statement would have been drafted by the Secretariat in consultation with the parties to be issued to the media.”
The statement also said that the breach of confidence “does not augur well for bringing the discussions to a mutually agreeable conclusion” and that the Guyana government “will reserve its position to continue its negotiations with the WICB.”
