By IANS/CMC,
Georgetown (Guyana) : West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) President Julian Hunte is set to meet Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo over the latest developments in the administration of the game in that country.
An official source has informed CMC Sport that the meeting is set to take place Tuesday, following Jagdeo’s decision to set up an interim management committee – headed by Minister of Sport Frank Anthony – to replace the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB).
This follows the unsuccessful legal challenge by a member of the GCB about the constitutionality of its recent elections, which saw Ramsay Ali, the former marketing officer, take over from Chetram Singh as president.
“This is a very serious situation, and while Mr. Jagdeo is the President of Guyana, he does not have the authority to put people in positions on an IMC (interim management committee) to replace the national cricket board,” a WICB official told the Kaiteur News daily.
Anthony has already informed the WICB CEO of the government’s decision to take over the running of the sport in the country.
But the International Cricket Council (ICC) has recently put a policy in place which gives members a minimum of two years to untangle themselves from political interference in the administration of the sport in their territories.
“The Guyana Sports Minister called, but we want him to formally write to us on the matter since this is a very serious issue,” the source told the newspaper.
“(It) could not only affect Guyana’s cricket but West Indies cricket, since if Guyana and its players are no longer an official part of West Indies cricket, we would have lost a founder member of the WICB, and Guyana’s players will not be considered for regional selection.”
The newspaper also disclosed that the WICB has put Barbados on standby to stage two Women’s Twenty20 Internationals between West Indies and Pakistan scheduled for Sep 10 and 11 under lights at the Guyana National Stadium.
Barbados has also been identified as an alternative venue for the WICB Regional One-day competition in October.