Dear Editor,
For the past six weeks, I have been bombarded by cricketers and cricket fans alike in Berbice as to why cricket is not being played in the Ancient County. After doing some investigation, I was shocked to discover that to date, no first division, no second division and no under17 cricket was played in Berbice for the year so far. And only one under19 competition was played and that was run by the Guyana Cricket Board. The only competition run by the Berbice Cricket Board is under15 which is in its quarter final stage. I could not believe that this is the state of affairs of cricket in Berbice and I am wondering what will be the response of the Berbice Cricket Board when this letter is published. I guess they will put the blame on rain which is the perennial scapegoat. But guess what, before the advent of the May/June rain, which started about five days now, we had six weeks of drought-like conditions, brilliant sunshine, and no cricket was played. So please BCB, don’t come with that excuse.
The other thing that is worrying, and of great concern to cricketers, especially, is that although no cricket is being played, teams are being selected to represent Berbice in inter-county tournaments by playing one or two practice matches. Editor, talking to cricketers and club officials, I was told that this system is riddled with nepotism and favouritism where the selectors are picking players not on merit, but from certain clubs and geographical area. And therein lies the danger. Cricket is not being played, so the selectors have free rein to do what they like, but if you have competitions then players would have to be selected on performance and stats, and everything would be out there in the public domain and the selectors would be under greater scrutiny and have to account for their actions. Finally, before I close this missive, the rainy season is here now and according to our met office report last night, after the May/June rain, we will be having drought from July and here is hoping that the BCB will start preparing from now so that we can have cricket galore from July until yearend. Hope this advice is taken in good faith.
Sincerely,
Imtiaz Baccus
