A motion to read a petition reputedly signed by close to 5000 “Stakeholders of Guyana Cricket” urging Members of the National Assembly to expedite the passage of the Guyana Cricket Administration Bill 2012 was yesterday voted down because inappropriate language was used in its drafting.
The motion was presented by People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) MP Odinga Lumumba on behalf of the stakeholders
But according to A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) MP Basil Williams, the language used in the petition is offensive, and paints a picture of “scandalousness.”
The petition therefore violates Standing Order 41 (4), he said.
The statements which Williams was referring to includes one which reads: “There is no transparency or accountability for the monies remitted by the West Indies Cricket Board Inc. (WICB) to the purported GCB (Guyana Cricket Board).” More serious statements include those which say that “the assets of the GCB and the DCB (Demerara Cricket Board) (including funds) have been transferred to private individuals without the knowledge and authorization of the constituent members of those boards.” The petition also said that the expediting of the bill would preclude the “possibility of cricket being used as a conduit for laundering money”.
The petition also purported that there is “apparent collusion between the WICB and the illegal Executive of the WCB and that the WICB continues to recognize the GCB as the governing body for cricket in Guyana without addressing the critical issue that the persons holding themselves as the Executives of the GCB were not constitutionally elected.”
The petition was signed by a number of senior figures in cricket here including Norman McLean, Pre-sident of the Guyana Cric-ket Board, Bissoondyal Singh, President of the East Coast Cricket Board, President of the Berbice Cricket Board, Keith Foster and Claude Raphael.
House Speaker Raphael Trotman also noted the “strong” nature of the language used in the petition, but conceded that it was not his, nor the opposition’s place to decide if the motion to read the petition should be put.
APNU and the Alliance for Change (AFC) therefore joined numbers and defeated the motion 32-32 (APNU MP Deborah Backer was absent), but not before PPP/C MP Gail Teixeira cautioned the opposition against the action.
Reiterating statements she made when a petition to expedite the passing of the Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill was voted down by the opposition, she said that petitions are one of the only ways members of the public are able to have their voices heard by their Parliamentarians.
She also brought up instances where the PPP/C government had allowed petitions to be read event though they were not pleased with the content. Agriculture Minister Leslie Ramsammy did not speak during the sitting yesterday but later in the evening he released a statement which mirrored those offered by Teixeira.
The Bill, which was tabled last year, seeks to establish county boards as corporate bodies and supplies a constitution for the embattled Guyana Cricket Board. Since being tabled it was never debated. Instead it was sent to a select committee for deliberations, after which it was brought back to the National Assembly with substantial changes.
Since being brought back though, the Bill has been continuously deferred, and has therefore never been read for the second time to this date. Additionally, the WICB indicated last month that it was not pleased with certain provisions in the Bill.
Cricket here has been in turmoil over the last few years following a showdown between the Ministry of Sport and the GCB. The Ministry derecognized the GCB and installed a committee headed by Clive Lloyd to run local cricket in December of 2011. This committee however failed to achieve its objective and has since faded from the stage with a concomitant resurgence of the GCB. During the period that the Lloyd committee was in charge, the WICB withdrew cricket from Guyana and maintained that the GCB was the legitimate representative of local cricket.
Following the exit of the Lloyd committee, the WICB has authorized some events here but it remains at odds with the ministry on the way forward.
