The Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) on Thursday held its annual general meeting and elections at the Muslim Youth Organsation, Woolford Avenue where former vice-president, Neil Barry was elected president.
Barry, a former Guyana wicketkeeper/batsman was nominated by outgoing president, Roger Harper, and was seconded by Demerara Cricket Club’s Dennis Squires.
Harper, the current chairman of the West Indies selection panel, had served five consecutive terms as president.
Everest Cricket Club’s Dwayne Adams had nominated Azad Ibrahim for the post, a nomination which was seconded by Gandhi Youth Organisation’s Divesh Ramjattan.
With three delegates each from the 10 first-division clubs and two delegates each from the five second-division clubs, a total of 40 votes were cast with Barry securing 23 votes and Ibrahim, 17.
Adams accepted an invitation from Returning Officer, Ronald Williams, to do a recount to which confirmed the Malteenoes Sports Club man as the head of the GCA.
The newly-elected president in his victory speech stated, “I am looking to lead an executive that will work assiduously to turn our cricket around and to fulfill our mandate to develop cricketers throughout this country, cricketers from all walks of life… and that is the charge of which I will accept and of which I will charge my fellow executives to ensure we can have cricket and this association promotes hardball cricket played at all the respective grounds, played in the correct manner to ensure our players get the opportunities to showcase their talent and go on to represent Demerara, Guyana and West Indies.”
Ibrahim was again nominated, this time for the post of first vice-president by Mark Harper and seconded by Barry. He was unopposed. Similarly, Roger Harper was nominated by Barry for the post of second Vice-President and was seconded by Squires and was unopposed for the position after Adams declined nomination from Ramjattan. Incumbent secretary, Debroah McNichol, was reelected unopposed after being nominated by Barry and seconded by Sean Holder. Captain, Andre McFarlene was nominated by Barry as well for the post of assistant secretary and seconded by Lavern Fraser-Thomas of the University of Guyana.
McFarlene was unopposed as well as Brother Imran Ally who was returned as treasurer after being nominated by Barry and seconded by Holder. For the position of assistant treasurer, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Amit Das, got the nod of 24 delegates to win the position ahead of the incumbent, Marcus Watkins who secured 15 votes from the 39 delegates present. Meanwhile, Speaker of the National Assembly and former Marketing Manager, Mazoor Nadir, was nominated for a second term in the role by Adams and was seconded by Ramjattan. However, Attorney-at-Law Emily Dodson, who was nominated and seconded by Winston Semple and Roger Harper respectively, got the green light after securing 24 of the 38 votes while Nadir had the approval of 14 delegates.
The new GCA president nominated incumbent, Colin Alfred for the post of Public Relations Officer and was seconded by Roger Harper but Alfred’s bid was unsuccessful as Ramjattan edged him 19 votes to 18.
Shaun Massiah as chairman of the competitions committee and Parmesar as the auditors, were both returned unopposed to their respective positions.
Barry congratulated the newly elected body, welcomed the new members to the executive and acknowledged that he is aware they will bring diversity.
The executives for GCA 2021-2023 are:
President: Neil Barry
1st Vice-President: Brother Azad Ibrahim
2nd Vice-President: Roger Harper
Secretary: Deborah McNichol
Assistant Secretary: Captain Andre McFarlene
Treasurer: Brother Imran Ally
Assistant Treasurer: ASP Amrit Das
Marketing Manager: Attorney-at-Law Emily Dodson
Public Relations Officer: Divesh Ramjattan
Competitions Committee Chairman: Shaun Massiah
Auditor: Parmesar
