Dear Editor,
Amid the continuing and equally contentious differences between the government anointed Interim Management Committee (IMC) and the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), I feel compelled as a member of the Essequibo Cricket Board (ECB) to support the members of the GCB in the light of the Rupert Foster Audit Report and in particular Mr Sheik Ahmad, who is the President of the Essequibo Cricket Board and former Treasurer of the Guyana Cricket Board. It must have been quite humiliating for those members to have suffered because of unsubstantiated claims being peddled against them, to the detriment of their integrity and professional lives. Now that the report is within the public domain (it was facilitated at the request of former Minister of Labor Manzoor Nadir), the IMC should acknowledge same as a matter of principle, and use it as an avenue of finding common ground with the members of the current GCB.
It is common knowledge that the ICC and WICB will continue to ignore the IMC because of clearly defined rules governing the game globally, and as a result the consequences have already impacted on the Guyanese public with the withdrawal of both regional and international matches. This trend will continue unless both parties can appreciate their roles and the IMC under the legendary Clive Lloyd who sits on both the WICB and the ICC can have the memorandum of understanding brokered by Caricom signed. Our statutes governing cricket in Guyana need revisiting, and perhaps this is the opportune time. However it must be done with sincerity and not with acrimonious intentions to isolate or drastically demoralize the present regime. In today’s society the populace is better informed and therefore the countrywide consultations by the IMC will not provide the desired objectives, since there is distrust among the constituents as to the relevance and timing of such meetings. Instead the IMC must commit to the rules of the game and institute fair play. The acknowledgement of the Rupert Foster report must be the first item on its agenda.
Yours faithfully,
Elroy Stephney
