Guyana, B/dos clash remains in doubt

- WICB meeting on Guyana situation on the cards

Guyana’s penultimate round clash of the West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) four-day tournament against Barbados yesterday remained in doubt for two reasons.

The first is that the WICB is yet to announce whether a Guyana team will be allowed to continue in the tournament following the granting of an injunction two Friday’s ago which prevented executives of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) from holding themselves out to be representatives of the GCB.

The second reason is that the players themselves seem not too interested in continuing to participate in the tournament as only a handful of them turned up again yesterday at the Interim Management Committee planned net sessions.

Stabroek Sport understands that the WICB Directors were scheduled to meet yesterday in St. Lucia to discuss the recent developments in Guyana and the team’s further participation in the ongoing regional four-day competition.

This was confirmed to Stabroek Sport by a WICB source who said that the WICB will be making a release on the matter shortly.

Guyana, currently in fourth place on 24 points after four games, is scheduled to play Barbados in their fifth game from March 9-12.

Leon Johnson above left and Ramnaresh Sarwan in action at the IMC Guyana team net session at Providence National Stadium. (Orlando Charles photo)

They then lock horns with Trinidad and Tobago from March 16-19 in their final game of the season.

Of the 19 players called up by the IMC for training ahead of Guyana’s remaining games, as was the case over the weekend, only seven players turned up at the Providence Stadium yesterday.

Openers Richard Ramdeen and Shemroy Barrington, leg-spinner Amir Khan, Jason Sinclair, middle order batsmen Vishaul Singh, Leon Johnson and out-of-favour West Indies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan were the players at the venue.

It means that only two of the 11 players who participated in the previous game against Jamaica, Sarwan and Johnson, have turned up.

Two Fridays ago, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall was successful in having the acting Chief Justice  Ian Chang, grant an interim injunction which restrained 13 GCB members from holding themselves out to be executive committee members or representatives of that body.

The injunction among other things allowed for searches be conducted on the premises belonging to Chetram Singh, Lionel Jaikarran, Ramsay Ali, Fizul Bacchus, Alfred Mentore, Anand Sanasie, Dru Bahadur, Anand Kalludeen, Colin Europe, Troy Mendonca, Terrence Holder, Rayon Griffith and Nazimul Drepaul.

The High Court granted “Anton Piller Orders” against the 13 officials of the GCB which provides the right to search premises  and seize evidence without prior warning.

The injunction was filed by the Permanent Secretary of the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Alfred King, on behalf of the plaintiff,  Nandlall.

The WICB at its two day meeting over the week-end,  has issued a release which again reaffirms its support for the embattled GCB.