From Donald Duff in Barbados
The International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Chief Executive Dave Richardson yesterday said that the organization was unable to intervene in Guyana’s cricket controversy because it did not have the authority to do so.
Richardson, a former South African Test wicketkeeper/batsman, was reacting to a question on why the ICC had not attempted to settle the ongoing situation with Guyana’s cricket?
Since 2011, the three boards that make up the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) the Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice boards have not voted together at the annual general meeting of the GCB.
Additionally, under the previous PPP/C administration, the Cricket Administration Act was passed in parliament which sought to make the GCB a corporate body and to regularize cricket in Guyana.
However, court actions by the various cricket boards continue to stymie the attempts to bring some semblance of order to Guyana’s cricket resulting in a deep division among the cricket clubs, boards and cricketers in the country.
Richardson said yesterday at a press conference at the Hilton Hotel here in Barbados that unlike the situation with USA cricket, the ICC could not intervene because cricket in Guyana came under the jurisdiction of the West Indies Cricket Board. “There’s a slight difference but the simple answer is that we don’t have the jurisdiction to intervene in that case.
“West Indies, although you are made up of different countries, essentially Guyana is just one of the associations that fall under the auspices of the West Indies Cricket Board.
“To take the analogy to county cricket if Durham county or Yorkshire had a problem then the ECB would be required to sort it out. The ICC wouldn’t come in, similarly Guyana falls under the West Indies Cricket Board so it’s up to the West Indies Cricket Board to sort out that issue,” said Richardson.
Told that the WICB had been unable to sort the matter out on two previous occasions and asked if the ICC could not do like they did with the USA and send in a Task Force to report on the matter Richardson said: ”As I said we don’t have the jurisdiction to interfere. If we were requested down the line by the West Indies Cricket Board to help them resolve that issue then of course we could deal with that request.”
Richardson also said that he could not shed any light as to what the situation was with respect to the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) US$42m compensation claim against the WICB following the aborted tour by the WI senior team last year. “There has been no update from outside those discussions. The ICC hasn’t involved itself in them. At this stage it’s been left to the West Indies Cricket Board and the BCCI to resolve the matter themselves as it relates to a bilateral series where ICC has got very little jurisdiction apart from providing the umpires and the rules and regulations under which the matches are played. Contractual arrangements around those tours are dealt with on a bilateral basis,” he declared.
