The Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) has made several important changes to its constitution as it seeks to modernize its operation.
At a special meeting held last Sunday and attended by most of the board’s member clubs, three motions were passed.
The amendments are as follows:
a) The board would now be known as the Berbice Cricket Board after members passed a motion to delete the words “of Control” from the name.
b) A motion was passed to increase the term of the executive from the current one year to two years. The Berbice Cricket Board was the only board in Guyana which had a one-year term in place and members agreed that the elected officials needed more time to fulfil their mandate before facing the polls again.
c) The board also passed a third motion to limit the terms a president can serve to three two-year terms. This means that no elected president can serve for more than six consecutive years. Members were of the view that six years was long enough for a president to serve and then new ideas and vision should be brought in.
This motion makes the Berbice Cricket Board the only cricket board in the West Indies to place a term limit on the presidency. The next election for the board would therefore take place in December 2010.
Members of the board also voted to be sterner with clubs that take part in BCB tournaments but refuse to submit report forms in the mandatory 72 hours. Clubs that fail to submit report forms in the mandatory time in round robin tournaments would lose half of their points won in that match, while for knockout tournaments they would be fined $5,000 which must be paid before their next match. Board members decided on this course of action after it was pointed out that many clubs had failed to submit report forms and this affected the smooth running of the tournament as well as public relations.
The BCB also decided to induct three former presidents as Honorary Life Members. Those to be inducted as Life Members are Malcolm Peters, Roy Baijnauth and Rampersaud Ramnanan who each served the board for more than a decade with dedication and a high standard of performance.
Among the upcoming plans for the next three months are the hosting of the Tribute to Heroes Pro-gramme, Filming of a 70-minute Coaching DVD by Berbice coaches, a one-week Cricket Academy for 30 Under-15 cricketers, official launching of the Berbice Under-19 All Time XI and a major fundraising raffle.
