Dear Editor,
May I take this opportunity to extend sincere congratulations to the President, Brigadier (rtd) David Granger, the Prime Minister and 1st Vice President, Mr Moses Nagamootoo and the entire APNU+AFC coalition on their victory at the polls.
They and lovers of our national pastime may be unaware that five injunctions are currently filed in the Guyana High Court by persons who are supposed to have the best interest of the sport at heart.
The Guyana Cricket Board, in the year 2015 alone, before the change of government, had already filed injunctions against the Minster of Sport and the Cricket Ombudsman, the Attorney General and Government of Guyana and they have supported an injunction of the executive members of the Berbice Cricket Board by two of its member clubs. In 2010, they injuncted the stakeholders of the Demerara Cricket Board and this faction of the Demerara Cricket Board has injuncted them. Yet they have continued to function on the Guyana and West Indies Cricket Boards regardless. Their attorney is being used in all of these injunctions and the Berbice Cricket Board, among other things, is prohibited from holding meetings. Although the Berbice Cricket Board has not attended meetings of the Guyana Cricket Board since 2010, in the interest of the sport and their emerging cricketers who wish to represent Guyana and the West Indies, they have maintained a fragile working relationship with the Guyana Cricket Board.
Between 2007 and 2009, large sums of money earmarked for cricket development were received by the Guyana Cricket Board. The West Indies Cricket Board has continued this funding over the years. Hostels with indoor practice facilities were built in both Demerara and Essequibo, but none in Berbice. The practice facility in Demerara has a run-up that is too short and the practice facility in Essequibo is incomplete. A small sum was given to Berbice for development of the Bermine Cricket Ground, with a promise $2million yearly subvention, which Berbice has never received. Indeed Berbice has received no funding from the Guyana Cricket Board since 2010, although they have been operating a rented office facility with a paid staff and completing their yearly cricket programme during this period.
The records will show, however, that between 2009 and 2015 Berbice county has produced four Test cricketers, compared to three from Demerara and none from Essequibo.
By the end of 2009, the Guyana Cricket Board President, who had already been in office for 20 years, had signalled his intention of retiring. The Assistant Treasurer of the Board, who was a government auditor, questioned cost overruns in relation to a project in which a member of his administration had an interest. Subsequently, while leaving a beer garden he was approached by a man who threw acid in his face. Thereafter, the Demerara Cricket Board was split into two factions. The stakeholders which include the Assistant Treasurer and the others now claim to be the Administrators of the Guyana Cricket Board. Both sides filed and have injunctions pending in the High Court. Injunctions which the administrators have chosen to ignore.
In a haste to leave office and with only the Berbice and Essequibo Cricket Boards legally entitled to participate, the President announced a date for elections. Berbice informed him that they would not attend and provide a quorum unless the Demerara factions had resolved their differences by having their Annual General Meeting with attendance from both sides and until a forensic audit of the Guyana Cricket Board was completed, for presentation at that Board’s AGM in early 2010.
The President went ahead regardless with the AGM, without the audit and a quorum. Members of the current administration were elected and this trend has continued over the years, with Essequibo County being the only legal board in attendance. As part of his campaign for President of the West Indies Cricket Board in 2013, the current President had vowed to have the situation resolved. The West Indies Board and Caricom, have since made two attempts. Memorandums of Understanding were drafted on both occasions by the West Indies Board for signature by the Guyana Government, the Guyana Cricket Board and the stakeholders. However, the essence of the understanding was changed on each occasion before reaching the parties, to the extent that the previous Guyana Government and the stakeholders could not sign.
In a further attempt to solve this problem, in 2014, a Special Committee of the Guyana National Assembly held several meetings with all the stakeholders in attendance. The Cricket Administration Act No 14 of 2014 was tabled in Parliament, approved by a huge majority and signed into law by the President of Guyana on August 4th, 2014. The administrators now have problems with this Act.
Suddenly, during the latter half of 2014, after four years of neglect, the administration, in an attempt to win votes at the December Annual General Meeting of the Berbice Cricket Board, began showering senior Berbice clubs with practice nets. Although two administrators, both Directors of the West Indies Cricket Board presented themselves at the door of the Board office during the count, their presidential candidate lost the election. Two weeks later they found themselves at the Annual General Meeting of the Essequibo Cricket Board, when clearly in a conflict of interest situation, one of these directors performed the function of Returning Officer. Very soon after, the executive members of the Berbice Cricket Board were injuncted. In the meanwhile, we hear grumblings from cricketers, too scared to come forward, that they had not been receiving match and retainer fees from the administration in a timely manner, without having being alerted as to the reason for these delays. Further, they complained that they are not being paid in United States dollars which results in a loss to them. A Berbice Testite, who had an option, has recently chosen Trinidad as his future place of residence. The Guyana and Essequibo Boards have the facilities and the funding, but it is the Berbice Cricket Board that holds an annual academy. The last three Test matches played in Guyana were in 2005 at Bourda, and 2008 and 2011 at Providence.
The three-day 1st Division competition, which is the strongest pillar upon which young cricketers develop their skills and talent, was last organized and played off in Demerara and Berbice in 2009 by the Guyana Cricket Board. This absence quite possibly has occurred in most of the Caribbean territories and has resulted in a definite decline in the standard of our game. The fact that our five-day Test matches have been ending in three days should surprise no one.
It was the great Sir Garfield Sobers, in an interview on ESPN on May 20, 2015, who said, “Youngsters must be taught to play Test cricket first.”
Who is to be blamed? Of course it is the Administrators. A former President of the West Indies Cricket Board posed a question in 2014. He asked: “Why are the West Indies Cricket Board Directors being paid and by whose authority?” This question remains unanswered.
With the state of the game as it is today, it would seem that the money earmarked for cricket development was not properly invested and the money being paid for legal fees is being wasted by individuals who are intent on remaining in office at all costs. Are we dealing with cricket kleptocrats? Is cricket in Guyana dying a slow death?
Yours faithfully,
Mortimer George
