By Royston Alkins
The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Essequibo Cricket Board (GCB) which was scheduled for Sunday at the ECB Hostel did not take place and president of the North Essequibo Cricket Committee Prince Holder said he believes that the non-staging of the AGM was deliberate.
According to reports from Essequibo, only four of the eight cricket committees were represented at the AGM and, according to the constitution of the ECB, six cricket committees are needed to constitute a quorum.
Holder, speaking exclusively to Stabroek Sports, expressed his concern over the way the event unfolded.
“It was a plan not to hold the elections,” said the outspoken Holder.
“One of the executives quoted a line from the new constitution saying that once elections were not held, the same representatives would automatically carry out the counties business at the national level,” he added.
Holder, a former player, said he believes that the decision not to stage the AGM was aimed at supporting the current Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) executive.
“This shouldn’t be the case since the “old” constitution says otherwise and makes the current executive illegitimate,” remarked an irate Holder.
The GCB has announced that it plans to stage its AGM January 29 and the non-staging of the ECB elections further complicate the issue since the Berbice Cricket Board has not yet held its AGM while there is an injunction in place preventing persons from holding themselves out to be executives of the Demerara Cricket Board. Holder accused the incumbent President of the ECB Fizul Bacchus as failing in his efforts to properly administrate the sport in Guyana’s largest county. “He, Bacchus failed. There hasn’t been any sponsorship for cricket in Essequibo since Busta left us and it is worrying since we need to be playing more competitive cricket,” he declared.
Holder, who was expected to challenge Bacchus for the post of president of the ECB said that ECB secretary Atto Christiani did not give adequate for the staging of the election.
Christiani, however said that this was not so and that the only reason why the AGM was not held was because of the lack of a quorum. “Indeed the elections were postponed because a quorum was not met,” he pointed out. ”We were all satisfied that ample notice was given. It was not deliberate to not have the elections,” he said adding…“There are no problems among the executive.”
