The Interim Management Committee (IMC) under the stewardship of its chairman Clive Lloyd completed its countrywide public seminar tour on Sunday at the Berbice High School.
From February 15th – 19th, the IMC visited eight venues in Georgetown, East Bank, East Coast, Linden, Berbice and Essequibo in which they engaged the patrons in those respective areas very openly in discussing the various cricket-related problems affecting them.
In front of an audience of more than 50 persons, the 67-year-old Lloyd who was accompanied by Major General (ret’d) Norman Mc Lean, Roger Harper, Bissoondyal Singh and facilitator Ronald Williams at the head table, commended Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) officials on the way cricket has been run in the area in recent years.
Terming it well fortified, Lloyd praised the cricket programmes in the area and wished that the other counties could be on the same level with the “Ancient County”. He suggested that some of the impressive things he had noted about the structure of cricket in Berbice could be used in the final IMC draft document.
From 2008 to the present, the BCB has organized and hosted over 250 off-the-field programmes, a number that has not been achieved in any other county in Guyana and this was considered creditable by Lloyd, the present Chairman of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Cricket Development Committee.
Some of the more pertinent matters presented to the IMC ranged from the state of grounds in Berbice, the voting system in the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) and the lack of international cricket at Albion.
As occurred in previous meetings, the case was again presented where local cricket officials complained about the problematic situation they experience with Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) regarding the use of certain grounds.
Secondly given that it was Berbice officials in the now well publicized August 2011 “Haniff vs. Ali” case against the GCB questioning the legitimacy of the election – they questioned Lloyd on what he intends to do about the voting system at the GCB level.
They also asked the IMC to put in place in the constitution, a legislature which would see all cricket boards being compensated for the cricketers they produce, saying “The WICB sends money to the GCB for Cricket Development and while the local boards prepare the players, they are not compensated for such by the GCB.
Lloyd and the other members of the head table agreed to the logic behind this proposal, with Lloyd citing as an example the England Cricket Board (ECB) which readily compensates a county from which a player was selected to represent the country.
And regarding the voting system at the GCB, a very pointed question was posed to the IMC about the role of Essequibo, by questioning whether that county really should have such strong voting rights in the GCB due to their lackluster performances on the field of play over the years.
Finally individuals indicated that they would look forward to the revival of international and regional cricket matches at Albion ground when the IMC completes its work.
They made particular mention of a case during the Regional Super50 tournament held in Guyana last October in which WICB officials deemed Albion unfit for hosting regional matches and moved the Guyana vs Barbados fixture to Blairmont.
Lloyd who is scheduled to leave sometime this week for an ICC meeting stated he hoped to put up a full summary of the IMCs findings before he leaves or just after he leaves the country.
