Dear Editor,
Mr Boston now seems to have been adopted as the official mouthpiece of the group headed by Messrs Claude Raphael, Ronald Williams and Bissoondyal. My letter was very specific in its content stating that the process utilized by parliament and the select committee was deeply flawed and I carefully outlined the reasons for my opposition to same therein. Mr Boston’s inadequate response contained no salient points that addressed the substance of my correspondence, which points are again summarized herein:
1.That the two Ministers, Dr Frank Anthony, Chairman, and AG Mr Anil Nandlall, Committee Member, should have recused themselves from the Parliamentary Special Select Committee process since they were actively involved in the whole manufactured cricket fiasco over the past two years and can easily be classified as being in a conflict of interest situation. Dr Anthony and his ministry were directly responsible for the alleged disbanding of the Guyana Board and installing of an IMC where it was alleged that only the IMC Chairman was remunerated with the handsome salary of US$12, 000 per month, all at the taxpayers expense. No other IMC member was paid and some of them, such as Eddy Luckhoo saw it fit to never serve on that ill-fated committee. This sports ministry was also responsible for the illegal trespass that involved the ludicrous act of locking out the GCB and its staff from its offices. The AG was the original attorney for this group prior to his appointment as the AG. During his tenure as the AG, his actions were responsible for the searches of several officers’ homes and offices and the seizure of the Board’s equipment. How can these Ministers then sit and head up such a committee deliberating on an impartial solution for the very mess that they were instrumental in creating? I call on the Guyana Bar Association and the Speaker to make some comments on the glaring impropriety and trust that better judgment will prevail when parliament reconvenes.
2. The second major point was that there are still several court cases surrounding the entire cricket fiasco which have not yet been concluded. My letter suggested that these cases need to be concluded before a resolution is arrived at or, alternatively, have the parties to these actions withdraw these matters if an agreement can be reached. None of these has occurred. In addition, these cases are subject to delays in the courts.
3. Further, upon close examination of this proposed Bill, the select committee totally ignored the submissions of one side in this matter and proceeded to tinker with a constitutional framework without obtaining the agreement of the membership. This is illegal, unconstitutional and totally unacceptable.
I will now directly address some of Mr Boston’s statements, or more especially, the propaganda that continues to be promulgated regularly by this group at various times.
Fable1-That the Berbice, Georgetown and East Coast entities are the best run boards in the Caribbean and their members are of impeccable quality and character: The cricketers that are produced in any part of this country come out of a very strong club structure. Georgetown benefits from the strong club structures of the GCC, DCC and Everest; Berbice again benefits from the strong structure in place at Albion, Port Mourant and Rose Hall with their links to GuySuCo and its grounds and general support system. East Coast cricketers have been produced by a few strong clubs in that area namely, Enterprise and Lusignan.
For these entities to claim credit for these successes is dishonest; so much for the cricketing acumen of these distinguished gentlemen. Most of the grounds in the rural areas of this country are controlled by the NDCs and they are all in the most deplorable state. It is noteworthy that the clubs that own their own grounds and the clubs affiliated with the GuySuCo grounds are the areas that produce the bulk of our cricketers. What does that tell you? The GOG needs to place more emphasis on the management of these grounds by taking them out of the control of the NDCs. That experiment has totally failed.
Fable 2- Insinuations that only persons associated with the group are qualified to manage teams coming out of Guyana: Mr Alvin Johnson has quite adequately dealt with Mr Boston in this regard. Mr Boston’s mentor was the Chairman of the Senior Selectors for the last 10 years or so prior to 2011, and it would be very interesting for him to produce the results/decline of the senior Guyana team during the time of his selection tenure and his proposed choices for the team management.
Fable 3- Claim that I attacked the Limacol CPL: Mr Boston should sharpen up on his reading skills as I never made any such attack. I simply made a comment that Mr Ramroop, a close friend of the GOG, had now bought out the Guyana T20 team and was the title sponsor for the CPL. I further stated that T20 is the cash cow of the cricket world with the cricket boards around the world shouldering the burden and responsibility for developing these players. I would now further state that the cricket boards are being paid a licensing fee, but more needs to be done for the nursery of these players. I am fully aware that the LCPL has tremendous potential for the development of cricket regionally, but I hope a careful post mortem would be carried out at the end of this season.
For sure, having just 4 Guyanese representing the Amazon Warriors is not good enough for the development and exposure of our players. Further, only Bishoo was selected by another country and played a token game after Barbados had already effectively qualified for the semis and had begun to try out other squad members.
The remainder of his letter does not merit further comment. This is my final piece of correspondence on this matter with Mr Boston.
Yours faithfully,
Intikhab Sankar
