Dru Bahadur is the new president of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) after the body held its elections yesterday at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) pavilion.
Other members of the executive are: Faizal Bacchus – Vice President of Administration, Alfred Mentore Vice President Operations and Development, Secretary – Anand Sanasie, Assistant Secretary Viren Chintamani, Treasurer – Anand Kalladeen, Assistant Treasurer – Rajesh Singh, Marketing Officer – Rajendra Singh, Public Relations Officer – Andy Ramnarine, Trustees: Lalta Digamber and Ramdeo Kumar.
The new GCB executive was elected by eighteen officials from two of the three county boards namely Essequibo and Demerara.
“We were required to have a quorum; you must have constitutionally two county boards present with a total delegate count of 12. Actually, by the time the meeting was under way we had a full complement from Demerara and Essequibo of nine each which was a total of 18,” said Sanasie.
Given the ongoing court battle involving the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB), Sanasie was asked which faction of the DCB participated in the election process; he said, “I don’t know what you are speaking about, but the Guyana Cricket Board has always recognized that Raj Singh and his election but whatever transpired back in 2011 is the recognized body.”
The newly elected GCB officials were also asked to comment on the injunction which was filed on members of the DCB barring them from going ahead with elections on last Friday. Sanasie’s response was, “I was told that two or three officers may have been served but I was not there at the meeting that they were supposed to have.”
The Berbice Cricket Board did not participate in the election process despite two of its officials being on hand to witness the process. Asked about this Sanasie said; “I do not know officially if they are elected officials or not but I saw some representatives of the West Berbice area but they did not participate in the process.”
According to Sanasie notice was served on all the affiliated boards of the GCB informing them of the Annual General Meeting (AGM). He explained that a notice was published in the newspapers while hard copies were subsequently hand delivered to the Boards.
“I realize that the president who does not operate outside his office in Berbice is saying that he was not informed. I am sorry if he wasn’t, but it was through no fault of the Guyana Cricket Board or me specifically.”
Sanasie said that the relationship between the GCB and the Berbice Cricket Board will not be affected because of the county board’s refusal to participate in the election process.
“As far I can say we have never given up working on anyone and I can tell you, other than not attending today (yesterday) and certain decisions that might be influenced by the politics in cricket all over the place. The Berbice Cricket Board has been continuously sending cricket teams to tournaments and their players have been selected.”
Sanasie said the Berbice Cricket Board is important to cricket in Guyana. “We saw what happened at the Under 15 West Indies tournament when they missed (Berbice players) we were barely able to get through the tournament with any significant success, so they will have to be a part. However any organization has rules and regulations, dos and don’ts, so it cannot be a continuous thing to have adverse relationships with members, we will have to pursue it.”
Questioned on the role of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) now that a new executive have been elected, Sanasie said he could not answer for the IMC, but explained that “we are the recognized shareholder and member of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and we shall proceed to do our work as mandated by the West Indies Cricket Board and Constitution and membership of the West Indies Cricket Board. Until such time that another battle arises, we will be here functioning”.
The GCB Secretary said it was the executives of the Board who requested observers from the WICB, and a Director and Staff of the WIBC attended the AGM, and were granted observer status.
“I guess their report will give the West Indies Cricket Board guidance on how they proceed presently.”
Conde Riley, First Vice President of the Barbados Cricket Association and WICB Director when approached for a comment said he was satisfied with the election process, “based on the constitution used, I am satisfied that the elections were held in accordance with that constitution. I think that they were democratic and I am satisfied that everything was executed properly according to the constitution.”
Asked about the injunctions which were granted against the GCB, Riley said he has heard of the injunctions. However, he said he was not prepared to comment on them seeing the WICB has already made its position known.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Anil Nandalall when reached for a comment said, “I don’t wish to express a view on the legality of these elections, as both elections are already the subject of court proceedings.”
He, however, chronologically set out to list the developments as they unfolded since the Chief Justice Ian Chang ruled that the entire structure of cricket administered in the country was not recognizable by law.
“Then there was another development, one faction of the Demerara Cricket Board obtaining an injunction last week restraining certain persons from proceeding to hold elections for the Demerara Cricket Board. So in short you have the Chief Justice ruling in 2011, the Chief Justice injunction in February of 2012; you have the Chief Justice clarification in December; you have the consultations with the parliamentary process which is still ongoing,; you have an injunction granted by another judge last week, all of these are being ignored, disregarded and tossed aside by a group of persons who are determined to take control of cricket administration in Guyana. Unfortunately they are being aided and abetted by the WICB.”
The Attorney General went on to say that Guyanese must judge for themselves whether they are prepared to have cricket administered by persons, “who ignore the law, ignore the court system, ignore the parliamentary process, are these the calibre of persons whom we want to take charge of cricket administration? Especially since all the processes to which I have referred before have a singular objective and that is to create a structure which is legal and which will ensure transparency and accountability in the administration of cricket in Guyana because that is the only concern of the government in this entire saga.”
