Dear Editor,
I have carefully read Mr Raj Singh’s letter under caption ‘Sport can play a major role in protecting people from most of the social ills which plague us’.
Raj Singh has evaded stating who the executive members of the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) are and by what system they were elected. Instead he has promoted himself as a “consummate professional” and his Insurance Brokerage as the exemplar of what is just and right. How then does Mr Singh have his impeccable company sponsor a competition for a DCB that has its purported executive committee including Raj Singh injuncted from performing any function for and on behalf of the DCB?
The pronouncements of Mr Singh have prompted me to restate my request for him to disclose to President Granger and the people of Guyana who the persons are who are proclaiming that they are in control of the DCB. Why it is such a closely-guarded secret that even the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has been unable to provide the names? What is remarkable is that those names remain a mystery to the constituent members of the DCB. Mr Singh presents himself as a paragon of virtue who would not “sow the seeds of discord amongst our politicians and people,” as he states in his letter. Since he is an integral part of the group that has surreptitiously imposed itself on the administration of cricket, Mr Singh should explain the following:
- The Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Executive Committee consists of twelve Indo-Guyanese and one Afro-Guyanese.
- The entire thirteen-man Executive Committee of the West Demerara Cricket Association led by Lalta Digamber and Anand Sanasie are all Indian.
- The East Bank Cricket Association Executive Committee led by Anand Kalladeen and Raj Singh has eleven Indians and one African.
- In the distribution of cricket gear on the East Coast of Demerara by the purported GCB of which Mr Singh is an executive member, all the African clubs were excluded from that exercise namely Buxton, Plaisance, Golden Grove and Ann’s Grove, Perseverance and Paradise.
- Shimron Hetmyer, a Berbician, was unanimously nominated as captain of the Guyana U-19 team but was replaced by the son of a close friend of Mr Singh. However Hetymer, to his considerable credit, went on to captain the successful West Indies U-19 team. Notably, the Berbice Cricket Board has been totally excluded from Guyana cricket administration.
- Raj Singh’s GCB and DCB campaigned relentlessly against the inclusion of Linden and Upper Demerara in the structure of Guyana Cricket to the extent that the youngsters in those areas are ostracized from playing competitive cricket.
- The current GCB representatives to the WICB are all Indian: Anand Sanasie, Anand Kalladeen, Raj Singh and Drubahadur. There is no place for tried and proven cricket players, administrators and knowledgeables such as Roger Harper, Monty Lynch, Claude Raphael, Neil Barry, Reon King, Colin Stuart, Hilbert Foster, Keith Foster, Clyde Butts and Hubern Evans.
- The Guyana Cricket Administration Act 2014 has been challenged in the court by Fizul Bacchus, Anand Sanasie, Lalta Digamber, Rohan Sarjoo and Jonny Azeez. The clear intent is for them to stay in power indefinitely contrary to the tenets of transparent and democratic elections.
Further blatant disregard is Mr Raj Singh’s GCB failure to present a financial report to Parliament or to the National Sport Commission to account for the US$640,000 that it receives from the WICB annually.
Of extreme concern to the people of Guyana is the transfer of the assets of Guyana cricket, including all bank accounts to a private company (Cricket Guyana Inc) owned by twelve persons including Raj Singh. The very Raj Singh holds all the DCB shares in his name as President of the DCB when he was never elected to that position and this is a clear breach of several orders by the High Court.
It is quite appalling that for six long, tortuous years the PPP government had promoted and condoned the lawlessness in the administration of Guyana cricket. As a former cricket administrator of Police Sports Club and the Malteenoes Sports Club and a former Guystac Sports Organizer, I respectfully call on President David Arthur Granger and the Government of Guyana to decisively and aggressively bring a resolution to the cricket crisis, especially as the Minister of Sport and the Attorney General are defendants in the matter brought by Anand Sanasie et al to stop all elections under the Guyana Cricket Administration Act.
Yours faithfully,
W G Boston
