Just over four years ago in these columns, Stabroek News addressed the disturbing problems of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) in the aftermath of the acid attack on one of its executives Mr Pretipaul Jaigobin, an accountant who had raised questions about the accounts of the GCB and other matters, and following the decision of the Minister of Sport, Dr Frank Anthony to convene a meeting of the entire board.
The editorial concluded with the following warning “It cannot be put more baldly than to say that the Guyana Cricket Board faces an internal crisis which could sap public support, enervate its ability to function and draw unwanted questions about financial probity from the WICB and further afield. Therefore, bearing in mind the corrosiveness of some of the allegations made and the pitching of the acid, the board and the minister should be acutely aware that any investigation which falls short of expectations will not remedy the loss of credibility and confidence and could do irreparable harm to the game.”
Needless to say, the intervention by the minister was an utter failure and in the inter regnum, local cricket has become engulfed in an unprecedented crisis which has led to the withdrawal again of Test cricket from Guyana, this time in relation to the New Zealand tour. The four years have been disgraced by indifference, a failed attempt to dislodge the discredited GCB executive by legal and other action, the bungled initiative for an interim management committee headed by Mr Clive Lloyd, the pulling of international cricket from Guyana, the resurgence of the old GCB and a stalemate over the cricket administration bill which was finally passed by parliament last month. Beneath the GCB, the various county boards and cricket clubs have had their own internecine conflicts which have marred the gentleman’s game and triggered torrents of conflicting and bewildering legal action.
In all of this, those who have suffered the most are the players who have dreams and aspirations of playing on the international stage and the ordinary cricket fans hungering for keen contests and to behold the beauty of the game. Unfortunately, they have no advocates or legal eagles representing them in this unseemly cavalcade of self-interest that has gripped local cricket and also exposed the sanctimonious and overbearing behaviour of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).
It is difficult to draw sympathy for any of the sides in this crisis of crassness. The GCB has for years been dominated by a handful whose sole interest is the cover up of misdeeds, self-preservation and aggrandizement. Genuine interest in the game, its players and the cricketing public come low down in their priorities. The Guyana Government, after a squiring the GCB executive for many years then turned on it and spent the next four years lurching from one bungled initiative to the next, showing no adeptness and firmness in dealing with a problem that is no doubt responsible for the shocking degrading of the quality of Guyana’s cricket. No paragon of virtue itself, the WICB’s insistence on defending the GCB no matter what underlines the fact that the time has indeed come for its own complete revamping to rid it of insularity and special interests. Indeed, if the worthy recommendations of the 2007 Patterson report had been implemented, there would have been no WICB today but an institution which would have been better able to fairly address the wretchedness that has consumed local cricket.
So what is the way forward? There can be no role for the present GCB executive and its champions. The body is thoroughly discredited and cricket will not have a chance to recover if it continues in place. The GCB has no legitimacy after crooked elections and innumerable questionable practices. It is also without the legal underpinning and accoutrements needed for today’s game. The cricket administration bill which was recently passed by majority support in Parliament must provide the basis for clearing the way for fresh, verifiable and non-controversial elections for a new executive for the body which will preside over local cricket. Hopefully, it will be able to muster a complement of credible and accomplished administrators, visionaries and technicians to set the field for cricketing calm. It can then begin resolving the fractiousness at the level of the county boards and clubs.
As for the WICB, the same manner in which Caricom and regional heads have had to intervene in other cricket crises, the Guyana situation should be treated as one such. Caricom has already taken an interest in this matter and has sat in on several mediation efforts. Georgetown should immediately petition the Caricom Chairman and the secretariat to continue with these services towards a satisfactory resolution of the standoff between the government and the WICB. The pain of losing international cricket in the short-term will be worth it if there is a solution to these long-running problems. It is unseemly to say the least that the WICB would seek to impose its views when a majority of the legislature – in this case representing the government and the major opposition – has spoken.
The Gordian knot that the government is now faced with serves as a cautionary tale for it. Many of the present problems in cricket had their genesis in poor governance, corruption, financial unaccountability and a lack of transparency. It is a microcosm of the very failures deeply embedded in the PPP/C government over the last two decades and which failures have seeped into every sector of the country including sport. The PPP/C must put its own house in order before it can credibly seek to discipline others. The gross disrespect that has been shown to the government over the cricketing crisis is directly linked to its own egregious failings.
Hopefully, the dark night for cricket players and fans will soon come to an end. It is worth at this point quoting a section of Professor Hillary Beckles’ foreword to the Patterson Report on the role of cricket in the West Indian society. He said “West Indian people have made their greatest single cultural investment in cricket. This circumstance undoubtedly has multiple layers of meaning that carry several implications for the nature of their social, economic and psychic expectation. They have made this investment not only in terms of the physical infrastructures that dominate the landscape of each territory, but in the mindscape of each citizen who has every good reason to feel an acute sense of ownership. The enormity of this historic investment is not often grasped by public policy makers and cricket officials”. Indeed.
