Attorney-at-Law Arudranauth Gossai has filed an injunction in the High Court seeking to declare that the January 26, 2020 elections of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) was unlawful, null, void and in contravention of the Guyana Cricket Administration Act.
Stabroek Sport understands that Gossai filed the application on behalf of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) while Fizul Bacchus, Dru Bahadur, David Black, Anand Sanasie and several others are listed as the respondents.
“A lot of things happened in January; the Sanasie faction at the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) held an election without an Ombudsman, of course, and we have challenged that and we have also applied for an injunction to stop them from holding themselves out as officers of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB),” Gossai told Stabroek Sport.
The injunction was filed on February 18 and the hearing was set for early March in Berbice.
However, Guyana’s ongoing elections fiasco and now the global health pandemic have prevented the matter from being heard.
The attorney explained that the GCB held an election void of the guidelines prescribed under the Act.
“…the very people who held the elections indicated that the elections were not held under the Cricket Act. It was as if the Cricket Act was never passed and these are the people who went to the Court of Appeal and asked for the Cricket Act to be suspended,” Gossai explained.
“So, while they are suspending the Act, they are going ahead acting as if it was never passed,” he added.
The Cricket Administration Act was passed in Parliament on May 15, 2014.
Enshrined in the Act are a number of stipulations for the staging of elections of the GCB following allegations of illegal elections in the past.
Based on the Act, the first elections of the GCB by law should be called by the Minister of Sport in consultation with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).
The GCB subsequently rejected the legislation and moved to the Court of Appeal to have the Act suspended in 2014 and in 2018.
Gossai explained that the January 2020 elections were further compromised by the involvement of the embattled Demerara Cricket Board (DCB).
“…They needed a quorum prior to the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) election, they needed at least two county boards present at the AGM before you can have an election. I, being legal advisor for the BCB, advised them not to attend any such meeting called by the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB).
“Knowing that Berbice would not attend, they held an election for the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB)… Now that’s another interesting dynamic because Justice Singh had ordered an election to be held for the DCB and they went to the Court of Appeal asking that elections be Stayed until the Court of Appeal can determine the issue on the suspension of the Cricket Act…but low and behold they went to Wales and held that DCB elections.”
Gossai reiterated that the GCB has been using the court system to facilitate their wrongdoing and is making a mockery of the legal instruments.
He assured that the struggle to bring back some semblance of normalcy to the GCB will continue once the COVID-19 situation is under control and the courts resume normal proceedings.
