DCB elections halted by injunction

-GCB elections in jeopardy

Cricket in Guyana continued its tumultuous existence when the scheduled Annual General Meeting and election of officer bearers for the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) was halted yesterday by a Court injunction.

The injunction was granted at around 10am yesterday to plaintiffs Roger Harper and Davteerth Anandjit and the defendants are Rajendra Singh, Lalta Digamber, Anand Sanasie, Alfred Mentore, Anand Kalladeen, Ravindranauth Persaud, Ronald (Rohan) Sarjoo, Nazimul Drepaul, Colin Europe, Ray Persaud, Krisnchand Mangal, Chetram Singh, Lionel Jaikaran, Ramsey Ali, Fizul Bacchus, Dru Bahadur, Troy Mendonca, Terrence Holder and Rayon Griffith.

The DCB AGM was scheduled to be held at the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) office Regent Street but Stabroek Sport understands that copies of the injunction were served to Dru Bahadur and Sarjoo, a former national Under-19 cricketer yesterday after efforts to serve the other members were met by closed doors.

“There were about 50 persons or so locked up in the room upstairs of the GCB office,” a source told Stabroek Sports last night. They locked themselves in the room and we could not get in,” he added.

SHEMAINE CAMPBELLE GIVES THE THUMBS UP SIGN! Shemaine Campbelle gives the thumbs up sign as she and Stafanie Taylor get assistance from a Virgin Atlantic staffer as the West Indies women’s team departed the region on their way to India for the Women’s 2013 World  Cup competition which begins on Thursday. WICB Media Photo/Philip Spooner
SHEMAINE CAMPBELLE GIVES THE THUMBS UP SIGN! Shemaine Campbelle gives the thumbs up sign as she and Stafanie Taylor get assistance from a Virgin Atlantic staffer as the West Indies women’s team departed the region on their way to India for the Women’s 2013 World Cup competition which begins on Thursday. WICB Media Photo/Philip Spooner

The source said Bahadur was served at approximately 4.20pm yesterday as he arrived at the GCB office.
Bahadur is the assistant secretary of the GCB and is also secretary of the Special Committee set up to allocate delegates for the four constituents of the DCB.

Sarjoo is president of the East Bank Demerara Cricket Association (EBDCA).
Stabroek Sport understands that representatives of the EBDCA and the West Demerara Cricket Association turned up for the AGM while representatives of the East Coast Demerara Cricket Association (ECDCA) and the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) did not turn up.
The matter is set to be heard on February 5.

The granting of the injunction will almost certainly affect the GCB AGM which is billed for tomorrow at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) pavilion from going ahead as planned. So far only the Essequibo Cricket Board (ECB) has indicated that it will attend tomorrow’s meeting.

Newly elected president of the ECB, Fizul Bacchus, had told Stabroek Sport on Wednesday that the ECB would be participating in tomorrow’s AGM.
“Essequibo will be represented as far as I am concerned,” Bacchus told this newspaper.

However, Berbice Cricket Board president Keith Foster said that the BCB had not been officially notified.

Fizul Bacchus
Fizul Bacchus
Keith Foster
Keith Foster
 Roger Harper
Roger Harper

“We have not gotten an invitation,” Foster told this newspaper adding that he was alerted to the upcoming AGM by way of newspaper reports.
Yesterday, GCB Secretary Sanasie told this newspaper that with regards to notices for the GCB’s AGM,   the Constitution states that (a) Notices for all General Meetings shall be sent by normal post and that (b) For the Annual General Meeting each member Board shall receive one month’s notice, and in addition the notice shall be published in one national newspaper circulating in Guyana.

Sanasie said that in addition to doing both of the above he also ensured that a copy of the notice was hand delivered to all the County Boards’ secretaries.
“Given the present toxic environment in which we operate I would have personally delivered an embossed invitation to the Honourable gentleman if the constitution so required. It is a travesty if he was not informed of the meeting and I do apologise if it was through any fault of mine,” said Sanasie.
Should Berbice not attend tomorrows AGM then the AGM might not come off.  The GCB Constitution states that there must be two affiliates of the GCB at the AGM and  no less than 12 delegates.

Rohan Sarjoo
Rohan Sarjoo
 Dru Bahadur
Dru Bahadur

Foster’s executive was scheduled to meet on Thursday to discuss the issue.
The WICB has indicated that they will be sending two observers to witness tomorrow’s AGM. Guyanese Imran Khan, who is the Corporate Communications Officer of the WICB, told this newspaper on Wednesday that the WICB will be sending two persons to observe the electoral process although Khan was unable to say at the time who the observers would be.

The previous AGM of the GCB where Ramsey Ali was elected president had similar problems with only Berbice and Essequibo attending since there were two separate DCB’s at the time one headed by Bissoondyal Singh and the other by Raj Singh.

The BCB had attended that AGM but had abstaining from the voting process although one of the BCB’s members David Black reportedly defied the BCB’s decision not to vote at the AGM and did so.

The result was that the legality of the AGM was brought into question with some legal experts being of the opinion that the BCB had participated in the process and that there was a quorum while others were of the view that the elections were illegal since the BCB had taken a decision not to participate in the electoral process.