Dear Editor,
Members of Buxton’s Carl Hooper Cricket Club would like to record our full support for the Cricket Administration Bill 2012. Our members signed the Cricket Bill Petition since we felt that our cricket needed urgent attention to restore order and accountability at all levels.
Our club has suffered tremendously from the chaos of the group headed by Raj Singh and Anand Sanasie that has illegally taken over the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB).
We were never made aware of when elections were held and who the purported elected officials of the DCB are.
However, on several occasions at the Everest Cricket Club, a group of five men who by no means played cricket at any competitive level were selecting teams for Demerara. We were also informed that this is the same group that has usurped the East Coast Cricket Board’s authority and proceeded to select the East Coast teams in clear violation of the DCB constitution.
What is remarkable is that this is the first time in the history of Demerara cricket that the selection panel is comprised solely of Indians, who have never represented Demerara or Guyana and in some cases are unknown to the cricket fraternity. The members of our club are essentially Guyanese of African descent and over the past three years or so have been ignored in the selection of players to represent East Coast and Demerara. The statistics in the East Coast competitions would clearly establish this discrimination.
We have been patiently awaiting the resolution of these issues affecting our cricket by supporting the parliamentary process. But sad to say there seems to be no immediate end to the problem since it appears that the members of parliament are probably more interested in political show-off rather than the issues of the desecration and the rapid deterioration of our national game.
The situation just cannot continue, especially with the new unknown criteria for team selection. Cricket must not be held to ransom by a few misguided individuals who have not only hijacked the game but have brought a new dimension to it.
It is time for the intervention of those whom we elect to represent us nationally, if not our youngsters will be deprived of the opportunity to exploit their talents, while unqualified and unsuitable persons who do not have cricket at heart continue to destroy the game.
The Cricket Administration Bill holds the key towards providing a solution to our cricket problem, since there will be free and fair elections at the Demerara Cricket Board and Guyana Cricket Board levels and our basic fundamental rights to exercise our franchise to elect professional boards and to appoint representatives to all the sub-committees will be restored.
We are therefore humbly requesting that the combined opposition in the National Assembly seriously and expeditiously address this situation by supporting the Bill that will ultimately bring sanity to our beloved game.
Yours faithfully,
Essie Peters
President
Carl Hooper Cricket Club
