There should be an investigation into the financial status of the cricket area committees on the Essequibo coast

Dear Editor,
I am in sympathy with Mr Pretipaul Jaigobin, Assistant Treasurer of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) who suffered at the hands of some wicked persons. From all information Mr Jaigobin has been very outspoken about having a more transparent and accountable cricket board where the board’s resources can be utilised in the best way for cricket development. I appreciate Mr Jaigobin’s sentiment to place his trust in God, and leave those who wanted to destroy his life to wander, since they have a guilty conscience.

As a former cricket administrator and manager of the Essequibo junior and senior cricket, I am calling on those in authority to visit area committees on the Essequibo coast and carry out a thorough investigation in relation to their financial status, especially the Essequibo Cricket Board and the North Essequibo Cricket Committee.

In 2007, I took over the chairmanship of the North Committee from the 2006 committee, which is the same as the current 2010 committee and which refuses to hand over the committee’s assets such as files, ledgers, books, financial statements, records, etc. This North Committee used to have twelve affiliated clubs but now it only has four since eight clubs have pulled out and formed a new committee called the North Professional Cricket Committee.

During my tenure there were several queries pertaining to irregularities in financial statements under the 1998-2006 North Committee. Under my chairmanship I requested a financial statement from the then Treasurer of the Essequibo Board, who played down my request. However, the 1998-2006 Committee in collaboration with some members of the Essequibo Board Executive removed the 2007 democratically elected committee by allowing twenty-four  non-functioning clubs to vote out the 2007 committee using politics as their weapon against me.

Yours faithfully,
Pooran Persaud
Councillor