President and CEO of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), Dinanath Ramnarine is calling on the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to not recognise the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) and bring good governance to cricket in the Caribbean.
Ramnarine made the comments during a press conference at his office on Richmond Street in Port-of-Spain Monday. According to the former West Indies leg-spinner : “I have asked you to come so that we can talk about the Guyana situation and put it in a perspective contrary to what the WICB will have you believe is the only genuine and legal position. While the WICB’s approach is consistent with the past, and is one of the many reasons why it continues to lose all the arbitration and court matters in which they have been engaged with WIPA and other third parties, sadly, it appears that their manipulation of the game has taken a new turn.
“A careful examination of the Guyana situation bears grave concern.
Guyana’s Chief Justice Ian Chang upheld a motion that the GCB was a legal non-entity and hence declared that the Guyana Cricket Board has no legal status. In so doing, he recommended that the Minister of Sport address the urgency of the matter, and manage the sport until such time as proper legislative structure is put in place to govern the sport.
“As is known, the governing body for sport, in this case the Guyana Cricket Board, is responsible for the game of cricket in Guyana which carries with it considerable financial responsibility and the management of funds, players etc. Accordingly, the fact that the GCB’s registration was quashed has created alarm since players’ interests cannot be protected.
“Additionally, as mentioned above, the genesis of the Court’s decision was not idle fare, but rather in response to, among other things, reports of irregularities in the GCB elections.
The courts ruled that they could not decide the matter of the irregularities in the elections as the GCB was not a legal entity. Thus to this day we do not know for sure whether or not the GCB elections were properly held.
“WIPA supports the rule of law and will not oppose the ruling of the Courts. WIPA believes that the WICB has again demonstrated its lack of regard for the rights of others as well as its contempt for the other stakeholders of West Indies Cricket. It is the same contempt they show so openly, and so disrespectfully, to the Patterson Committee on Governance even though that Committee was set up by the Board.
“The question is why in this day and age where cricket is a serious business does the WICB have territorial board shareholders who are unincorporated and hence legal non entities? When a player accepts to play with a territorial board that is unincorporated and if there is a breach of any duties and responsibilities, how does that player pursue a remedy? To be clear this is not the case for Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica who all have been incorporated under acts of parliament or relevant legislation.”
