By Donald Duff
Following their continued vote of confidence by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) which continues to recognize the present Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) administration the GCB is now moving to regularise certain issues affecting the administration of cricket in Guyana.
One such move is to repair the fractured Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) which was split into two factions in 2011.
Back in 2001, one faction headed by vice president Anand Sanasie and secretary Raj Singh had announced that the annual general meeting of the DCB would have been held at the Wales Community Development Centre while the other splinter group, headed by then president Bissoondyal Singh had announced that the Lusignan Community Centre was the preferred venue.
Subsequently two sets of elections were held on January 22 with Bissoondyal Singh unanimously re-elected to the top position at the Lusignan AGM while at Wales secretary Raj Singh was elevated to the top post.
Yesterday, a press release from the GCB stated that following a special Executive Committee meeting of the GCB last Saturday at the GCB Boardroom, a special committee is to be set up to look into the matter.
“Recognising that the root cause of many of the issues at the GCB originated at the Demerara Cricket Board level, the executives appointed a special committee to call and overlook new elections in Demerara,” the release stated.
When contacted last night a GCB official said that the committee will comprise three persons. Pressed to name the members of the constitution, the official deferred stating that he was unable to do so since the legal representative had not yet been confirmed.
According to the release, however, the allocation of delegates shall be as per the last undisputed Annual General Meeting held in Demerara (on January 24, 2009) and that each Sub Association shall be awarded the same amount of delegates that they were entitled to when they last voted in an undisputed elections.
The release also stipulated that no representative of either faction of the DCB will be a member of the special committee.
According to the GCB official while there is at present no time frame for the matter to be resolved they are hoping to do so as soon as possible since the DCB elections are constitutionally due next month.
The release also stated that a new constitution agreed to by the executives which includes changes made after consultation with stakeholders and includes suggestions from the WICB and the Government appointed IMC shall be forwarded to the members and tabled at the next AGM for consideration, debate and possible approval.
Quizzed on this development the GCB official stated that this “new” constitution was a constitution that the GCB had been working on for close to about eight months.
“We were all along working with a constitution,” he said. This was the constitution that we had presented to former President Bharrat Jagdeo at a meeting we had held with him. Also, from responses received from the WICB changes were made. We also took into consideration some aspects of the government’s Interim Management Committee’s constitution,” the official said while pointing out that the document was still not finalized.
“This is not necessarily the final document. When it is tabled at the next GCB, AGM it could be further modified since members have the right to make any changes to the constitution but changes to the constitution can only me made at the AGM,” the official informed.
The release also stated that legal opinions obtained from Sir Fenton Ramsahoye SC and Keith Massiah SC with respect to the status of the injunction against some officers of the GCB will be shared with all stakeholders.
And, the GCB is also moving ahead with the staging of its competitions with a view to having representative national teams participate in next year’s regional competitions.
The GCB release stated that “in an effort to ensure that the WICB deadlines for submitting teams for the Regional Four day and one day tournaments are met immediate plans be put in place to commence inter county games and practice matches.”
According to the GCB official, the selection and competitions committees of the GCB are at the moment finalizing the fixtures and composition of the squads which will be chosen to prepare for the upcoming engagements.
Meanwhile, the GCB release stated that it was still optimistic of this country staging regional and other cricket matches despite the rift with government and would continue to pursue negotiations in this regard.
“Our representatives at the WICB must make all efforts to ensure that Guyana hosts regional and international matches in 2013. It was further resolved that the Executive Committee continues to engage the Government of Guyana to assist in this regard,” the release ended.
