Dear Editor,
In an earlier letter, I had mentioned the resignation of Anil Beharry as President of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) in January 2017; the assumption to the presidency of 1st Vice President, D Somwaru without a meeting being held; Somwaru’s efforts to have a few clubs request a Special Meeting; and his creation of the letterhead of the BCB, referring to himself as President, signing letters as President, sending out mail and dismissing executive members of the BCB by sending them these letters which he has signed as President.
Since then, Mr Somwaru and three others have made a trip to Georgetown. Upon their return he again sent out letters to a few chosen clubs inviting them to a Special Meeting on March 19, 2017. On this occasion he has signed as acting President and has attached a letter signed by David Black and Godwin Allicock, two individuals representing the West Berbice Cricket Association and the Port Mourant Cricket Club respectively, who had injuncted the BCB in March 2015, giving Somwaru permission to perform as acting President and stating that they would drop the injunction against the BCB if that Board dropped its injunction against the Guyana Cricket Board.
In a recent letter to Dennis D’Anrade of the Upper Corentyne Cricket Association and Hilbert Foster, the brother of the recently dismissed former President Keith Foster, Mr Somwaru, signing as acting President, invited them to join his group and gave them 72 hours to respond.
His agenda for the March 19 meeting includes:
No confidence motion against BCB Secretary; adoption of audited financial report; removal of nonfunctioning clubs from membership of the BCB; acceptance of the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club, Young Warriors Cricket Club and Tucber Park as members provided they apply for membership; removal of all legal matters against Guyana Cricket Board; and amending clause 4 of BCB Constitution rules concerning membership.
During the absence of then President Beharry from Berbice for more than a year, Mr Somwaru never showed any leadership. Instead, he attended several meetings of the illegal Guyana Cricket Board in breach of the injunction filed by David Black and Godwin Allicock, and appears to have become radicalized.
He has suddenly started to harass and bully the Administrative Secretary Angela Haniff with demands that she drop the BCB injunction against the Guyana Cricket Board and immediately supply him with a list of sponsors of Berbice cricket. She has not complied, hence his main reason for his motion.
After the Guyana Cricket Board injunction of the Attorney General and the Minister of Sport, the Guyana, Berbice, Demerara and Essequibo Cricket Boards were unable to hold Annual General Meetings to elect office bearers because the Cricket Ombudsman was not authorized to supervise these elections in keeping with the Cricket Administration Act. All four boards have since been in a holding position. The March 2015 injunction of the BCB has made it even worse for Berbice, due to the fact that the executives are prohibited from meeting. In addition, all elected and appointed members of the Board had their term ended constitutionally on 31st December 2015 and not 31st December, 2016, leaving the employed Administrative Secretary as the only authority.
In view of all the facts Mr Somwaru has no legal authority to summon meetings and sign and send out mail ‒ which are the responsibility of the elected and employed Administrative Secretary ‒ assume the presidency or acting presidency, hire or fire members or individuals, get rid of existing member clubs or admit new clubs, amend the constitution or drop a pending injunction. He certainly has no authority to create the BCB letterhead, refer to himself as President or acting President and sign letters as such.
It should be noted that the Guyana Cricket Board receives US$54, 000 monthly from the West Indies Cricket Board. They have not given the BCB a blind penny for eight years; instead they have been making numerous efforts to gain control of the BCB. Their offering to some disciples of a G$2M subvention each year out of their yearly receipt from the WICB of approximately G$130 M is an example. What a deal! G$2M would not even be enough to run a First Division 3 Day competition. This is especially so seeing that they have discontinued both the First Division 3 Day Case Cup competition in Demerara and the 3 Day Davson Cup competition in Berbice since 2010, and have also discontinued the 4 Day Inter County competition for the Jones Cup in 2015. Yet we wonder why our standards have not been improving.
I respectfully call on the Attorney General and the Minister of Sport of Guyana ‒ if they have not done so ‒ to submit in a timely manner their response to the GCB injunction concerning the implementation of the Cricket Administration Act. It is of enormous importance that this matter be concluded in the court in the best interest of our beloved game, but more especially our cricketers. We need to have free and fair elections as early as possible.
Yours faithfully,
Mortimer George
