Dear Editor,
I write concerning cricket trials hosted at the Bush Lot Village, West Coast, Berbice on Thursday, March 22, 2017. The trials were hosted by the West Berbice Cricket Association with a view to selecting a West Berbice Zone ‘U’17 team to participate in an ‘U’17 cricket tournament from which would be drawn the Berbice ‘U’17 representative team.
The West Berbice Cricket Association has a Selection Committee with a Chairman, three Selectors and a Coach who are tasked with selecting West Berbice teams. It should be noted that this committee is separate and apart from the Berbice Cricket Board’s Selectors.
On the day in question, a recently appointed ‘U’15 Berbice Cricket Manager sought to impose himself on the proceedings and take control of it because he was a Berbice Manager. However, at this point the President of the West Berbice Cricket Association, Mr David Black, himself a former National Cricket Manager intervened and sought to explain to the interloper that the trials were West Berbice business, and since he was not even remotely affiliated to the process, he should not interfere. This resulted in the Manager being openly abusive to Mr Black and he even resorted to calling someone on the Berbice Cricket Board to instruct Mr Black to allow him to select the team.
This ploy however failed, and by this time the angry Manager tried to sabotage the process by instructing his club’s players in the vilest language to go home and to return on Friday 23rd when he would conduct trials. This Manager made a public statement to the effect that any player who defied him and participated in the trials would not represent Berbice or Guyana. He was so arrogant in his attitude to these youngsters, I fear he is an embarrassment to cricket administrations nationally.
Editor, is this the way we are going to develop cricket in this country and develop our young people by chasing them away?
Yours faithfully,
R Saywack
Chairman
Selection Committee
West Berbice Association
