Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) president Drubahadur yesterday described 2015 as a good year for the board and its cricket but said that this year’s objective was to build on the progress made both on and off the field.
In an invited comment following Sunday’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the GCB, Drubahadur said that the meeting, which was held at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) pavilion, saw various projects outlined for 2016 while reviews, both financially and administratively for last year were presented by the respective County boards.
The GCB head honcho said that the AGM was carried out without hiccups and, apart from the absence of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB), which he said had indicated that they will not be a part of the meeting due to their ongoing legal issues, the Demerara (DCB) and Essequibo (ECB) cricket boards were present and did provide their respective financial reports which he said were in order.
He also said that the GCB, despite minimal support from a few close sponsors which assisted in staging competitions, was still financially stable.
Speaking of the GCB’s plans for 2016, Drubahadur confirmed that the Tri-Series between West Indies, South Africa and Australia in June will be played in Guyana while this year’s West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Regional Women’s competition will also be held in Guyana.
Last year the GCB and its local franchise Cricket Guyana Inc., (CGI) reintroduced cricket into the school system and, according to Drubahaur,
“What we are hoping for, because we have taken school cricket back in the schools, is to further implement more strategies and build on what we have in order to help our cricket to develop.”
CGI also scrapped the traditional Inter-County competitions for a Local Franchise League (LFL) system which features T20, ODI and the three-day formats of the game being staged prior to the Regional four-day, Nagico Super 50 and the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) tournaments, in order to help the player to prepare ahead of the various formats.
The LFL was launched last December with the 50 over format and, with CPL set for June, Drubahadur disclosed that the board will bowl off the T20 leg of the league upon the conclusion of the Regional four-day competition which ends in March while the three-day leg of the LFL will be run off in the latter part of the year, prior to the start of the 2016/17 WICB Regional season.
He reiterated the fact that sponsorship was an important area for the development of any sport, not only cricket and attributed the lack of sponsorship to a “small group of disgruntled people” who he said continually spread rumors about the board, thus tarnishing its reputation and making things a bit difficult for the GCB to execute certain goals.
“We have lots of companies on board and despite our performances in the youth and senior levels, we still need the help of sponsors because money is extremely important to the game and it has gotten so professional that if we get more sponsors we can do more for the players, facilities and other things.
“We are also asking the media to play its part as well as cooperate Because, while the cricket has improved, it is still not where it should be and some disgruntled people hurt the cricket by peddling stories about the GCB which are really inaccurate,” he ended.
