The problem of unincorporated associations

Introduction
Last Monday, August 29, I indicated in a letter to SN captioned ‘Nothing illegal about unincorporated bodies operating by the rules‘ that I would be reviewing in today’s column the court’s decision in the case brought by the Secretary of the Berbice Cricket Board against the Guyana Cricket Board. The Chief Justice gave the parties short shrift on the grounds that all the parties were legal non-entities and that the court was not the proper forum or avenue for any relief or redress involving the Guyana Cricket Board or any of its three county boards which make up its membership. In my letter I expressed the need to dispel the myth or fear created by Mr Claude Raphael who had attributed to the Chief Justice a statement that the boards were illegal. I am glad to say that the Chief Justice at no point in his judgment described the boards as illegal as claimed by Mr Raphael.

Judgement
Having said that, it is necessary to state that there was in substance as much jurisprudence and law as there were policy and politics in the judgment. Maybe given the continuing saga of the rival boards and factions that have been fighting for control of cricket in Guyana, the Chief Justice was left with no choice but to tell the parties that they