Last week, the presidents of two sporting organisations, one national and one regional, visited the local shores.
Yes, it is confusing at times, but the president of the Guyana Cycling Federation (GCF), Mr Horace Burrowes, who is based in the United States of America, was visiting, ironically, during the week of Independence celebrations.
At a press conference held at the National Sports Commission (NSC) last Wednesday to announce Guyana’s inaugural hosting of the Junior Caribbean Cycling Championships at Bartica in August, the GCF president was asked by a reporter from this newspaper when the local body will be holding elections.
In the presence of Mr Christopher Jones, the Director of Sport of the NSC, Burrowes declared that “the elections of the GCF is coming up, but I don’t think that is relevant at this time and I think we will speak on this a different time… the discussion could happen over the phone, when I return… I wouldn’t be hard to find.”
The GCF President added “I will say again the Guyana Cycling Federation is in very good understanding with the UCI [International Cycling Union] and the UCI is the world body and they control the federation or every international federation and I do as UCI say and I go as our constitution says and if UCI says to do certain things then I am doing as UCI say so I am actually going to say I don’t think it is relevant for us to speak on that anymore in terms of elections.”
The GCF President further indicated that he would be back and forth as the country prepares for the junior cycling championships but could not provide a definitive answer to Stabroek Sport if there will be discussions on elections before or after the championships. One can only wonder who is footing the bill for the president’s accumulation of frequent flyer air miles. We guess it is not relevant at this time.
Mr Burrowes and his administration, whose term in office officially expired in March of this year, have been at loggerheads with stakeholders for quite some time now. In December 2016, at an Extraordinary General Meeting held at Olympic House, nine of the then eleven cycling clubs affiliated to the GCF voted to dissolve the GCF and install an Interim Management Committee (IMC).
Mr Burrowes responded by resorting to the UCI and the Pan American Cycling Federation (COPACI) for support and managed to weather the storm and hold on to the chains of office. Now it is an entirely different scenario and from all indications it appears that Mr Burrowes has no immediate plans whatsoever for holding elections which are now past their due date.
The other visitor to Guyana was the newly appointed President of Cricket West Indies (CWI) Mr Ricky Skerritt, who was accompanied by CWI CEO Mr Jonny Grave. Skerritt’s two-day visit entailed meetings with local stakeholders, the Minister of Sport Dr George Norton and the Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo.
This newspaper was informed that Mr Skerritt met with a group who described themselves as “ Stakeholders of Guyana Cricket.” No doubt the main topic of discussion was the local controlling body, the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) which was last month ruled to be illegal by the local High Court. Mr Skerritt also met with members of this ‘board’ during his initial fact finding visit to Guyana.
Mr Skerritt did not have any meaningful engagement with the media during his visit and so far the CWI has not issued a statement on the discussions held here. According to one source, “The CWI President listened to the concerns related to the general governance of [of cricket]… the impact of the court rulings, the hosting of India [in August] and the Regional Under-19 tournament.” The source further added that the CWI had not been aware of the extent of the issues in Guyana. However, while no discussions have been held on the installation of an IMC, there was a proposal for the CWI managing the events.
In a previous editorial, A disturbing trend, (SN 25th January, 2017), this column cited the absence of transparency and accountability in many local sports organizations and recalled the embarrassment Guyana suffered when FIFA, of all organizations, had to intervene in the administration of local football and install an IMC. Here we are, two years later, and the disgusting pattern continues.
Will the presidents of the ICU and COPACI accept invitations to attend the Junior Caribbean Cycling Championships which it appears will be hosted by a local association whose term in office has expired? The CWI President is now aware of the score in Guyana, the ball is in hands.
We patiently await the actions of the ICU and the CWI.
