Guyana Cricket Board Official Locked-Up for Drunken Disorderly Behaviour

Mr. Bissoondyal Singh, leader of one faction of the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) confirmed today that the vice-president of his faction Mr. Prettipaul Jaigobin was locked up since Friday night for driving drunk and behaving in a manner such as to be a public nuisance. 

Confirmed reports reaching the Cricket Crusader indicate that on Friday night Jaigobin was driving on the wrong side of the road in Railway Embankment Road in the vicinity of Ogle, East Coast Demerara when President of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo was traveling in the other direction. Reports are that Jaigobin refused to heed the sirens of President Jagdeo's outriders and was driving on the wrong side of the road approaching the President's vehicles. When he was forcibly stopped by the President's Security Personnel he was found to behind the driving wheel drunk and had soiled himself. When the President's security personnel removed him from his vehicle Jaigobin was heard saying loudly that he is the President's "buddy friend" and that Minister of Finance Ashni Singh depended upon his expertise to make decisions; "Ashni Singh cannot make a decision without consulting me" he reportedly said. Jaigobin was slurring his speech and was unable to stand properly but the President's Security Personnel were reluctant to touch him because he had shat himself and was urinating himself as he was standing next to his vehicle. He was so intoxicated he had lost control of his bodily functions.

One onlooker to the entire incident said "da man nasty, and he so drunk he coulda kill somebody pun this road here tonight". The onlooker who has a small stall by the roadside said this is not the first time he saw Jaigobin is a drunken state driving along the Railway Embankment Road; "he does do this regula; this is he style ... he does stop by the shop right deh [points to a local rum shop] and drink steady". The onlooker said on many occasions Jaigobin would come to the nearby shop already drunk but would still go inside and drink even more.

Jaigobin in addition to being the Vice-President of the Bissoondyal faction of the Demerara Cricket Board is also the Assistant Treasurer of the Guyana Cricket Board and a senior functionary at the Ministry of Finance. He was assaulted several months ago with acid in the East Coast Demerara region but was too drunk at that time identify his assailants. It has long been rumoured that his acid-assault was as a result of his offensive drunken behaviour towards females in the liquor establishments which he would usually patronise along the East Coast.

Roger Harper can only win GCA elections with deciet and trickery

On the eve of the Georgetown Cricket Association elections former national cricketer Neil Barry has said that incumbent President "[Roger] Harper should see the writing on the wall and he could only defeat [Alfred] Mentore by deceit and trickery".

The long awaited Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) Annual General Meeting is set to finally take place this afternoon amidst fears of underhanded and illegal dealings on the part of Roger Harper. The Annual General Meeting at which the election of office bearers for the upcoming year takes place was originally set for the 26th January 2011; but when it was clear that the incumbent President Roger Harper was not going to be re-elected he contrived a frivolous and self-created reason to have the elections postponed. One former Test captain said he was "disappointed that Roger would be party to such dishonesty and deceit for the sake of a cricket office". However the apparent dishonesty and deception of Roger Harper is now in high gear with former administrators of now defunct cricket clubs; being the GUYSTACK Trade II and the Guyana National Service both saying that they have been approached by Harper to "pretend to be in existence for the sole purpose of voting at the AGM today". 

The accusations of dishonesty and deceit against Harper, a former Test cricketer and coach, is not new. Allegations abound during his tenure of office of financial impropriety; indeed most of it involved GCA Board members and not Harper. However, one former National Cricketer who is on Harper's current GCA Board said "it doesn't matter whether Harper is the one accused of financial swindling, what is important is that as the President of GCA he must be aware of it and is doing nothing to stop it". These allegations are being made against Harper at a time when television stations in Guyana broadcast the Executive Committee Meeting of the Demerara Cricket Board, of which Harper is a member, which displayed Harper's unruly, uncouth and obstinate behaviour. Since the broadcasts have begun Harper and his associate, the embattled Bisoondyal Singh, have been the laughing stock of the cricket fraternity.

However, a former Guyana and West Indies cricket captain who is familiar with Harper said he hoped that Harper would not stoop to such levels to keep a cricket administrator job; he added that he was disappointed that "Roger would be involved in such underhand practices as trying to inflate the list of clubs eligible to vote by improperly including defunct and phantom clubs to get votes against legitimate club who are entitled to have a full say in cricket administration in Georgetown". 

When contacted yesterday Bissoondyal Singh in a invited comment said that he was sure Harper would win since "it was simple mathematics having regard to the number of clubs voting". Bissoondyal went on to say there were no defunct clubs registered but admitted that some of the clubs now registered for the elections today had not played cricket for years and in fact did not have active cricket teams or administrators; "but they could come and vote now that we have re-registered them" so there should be no objection to them.

Players claim WIPA and WIPMACOL deceived them into sigining away their image rights

Senior members of the Guyana Cricket Team have expressed their disappointment and anger upon being made aware of the "true" contents of the contracts they have signed with the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) and with the West Indies Players Management Company (WIPMACOL). The Senior Team members who wish to remain anonymous said they learnt of the true contents shortly before their departure for St. Vincent and never realised that WIPA and WIPMACOL own their image rights solely. "I cyan imagine that Ramanrine would mek we sign a document taking away our image rights for himself" one player said. He said that he was never given a copy of anything he signed and he "signed during the lunch break while on tour with the Guyana Cricket Team last year". "Nobody explained anything to we; the captain said we signing up to join WIPA, I never hear 'bout WIPMACOL" another player said. His colleague said that "Ramnarine lie to us; he tek away our image rights and he ain't even put in the contract how much he gon pay us".

The players said they only learnt of the true contents of the contract when a "small gears sponsor" said he could not afford to pay Ramnarine the fees he was demanding for the use of their image rights. We were only getting gears which we need and he was demanding money payment from the sponsor to use our image rights. When we heard this we consulted a lawyer in Guyana who obtained copies of the contracts from the Court files and explained what was going on to us.

The Guyana Cricket Board throught their lawyer Sanjeev Datadin last year sued Dinanath Ramnarine (the Chief Executive of WIPA), WIPA and WIPMACOL and obtained injunctions against all of them just before the Guyana Cricket Team left for South Africa to play in the Airtel Champions League. The contracts were reportedly exhibited in those Court proceedings. 

The WIPA contracts state clearly that the players assign their image rights for a period of 15 years (with a renewal exercisable by WIPA option for a further 10 years) and will be paid "a fee to be agreed" for their image rights; the WIPMACOL contract is similar. Senior Counsel in Jamaica said "this would mean that even the player cannot enter into a contract to play cricket anywhere in the world as he is not the owner of his own image rights. WIPA and WIPMACOL own the players' rights solely, to the exclusion of the player himself". Another lawyer in Barbados who wished not to be named said "I am suprised that the West Indies Cricket Board has not intervened on the players' behalf". He said such a contract was opressive and the players were being taken advantage of because of thieir innocence and lack of formal education.

Another Guyanese Cricketer who wished to remain nameless said the "Sars tell us to sign everything; its only for membership to WIPA he said, I would not have signed otherwise.

The contracts also revealed that seasoned and experienced cricketers such as Darren Ganga, Dwyane Bravo, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Wavel Hinds were the principal officers of WIPMACOL and were the ones who signed the contracts on behalf of WIPMACOL. WIPMACOL is the business arm of WIPA and its shareholders are secret. The Minister of Sports in Guyana, Frank Anthony said that it appears that the senior players were influencing the younger players "to sign up" when they were the ones who were benefitting financially from the deal.

When asked the embattled Bissoondyal Singh of the Guyana Cricket Board said he saw "nothing wrong with WIPA owning the players' rights; they signed a contract and if they not sensible enough to read what they are signing then its their fault. Nobody force them to sign anything". But the Guyanese players disputed this saying that there was enormous pressure from Ramnarine and Sarwan (their captain) for them to sign the documents. They said it is apparent that anyone who does not obey Sarwan on such matters do not find their way into the final eleven regardless of how well they perform in trials. This they said was the case with Assad Fudadin and Richard Ramdeen; neither player could be reached for comment. However, the Chairman of Selectors Claude Rafael said he did not think that "such onerous and deceitful" contracts ought to be allowed. "This is Sarwan and dem teking advantage on dem youngeters" he said. He said he hoped it would not continue.

Guyana High Court issues injunction against entire Bissoondyal led faction of DCB

The High Court in Guyana granted an injunction against each and every member of the Bissoondyal led faction of the Demerara Cricket Board on the 8th February 2011 restraining them from holding themselves out or in any way performing the functions of the Demerara Cricket Board. Reports from Guyana indicate that Justice James Bovel-Drakes granted the injunction which will now continue until the 28th day of February 2011. The injunction was sought by the Secretary of the Raj Singh led faction of the Demerara Cricket Board. Legal experts in Guyana have said that as a result of the injunction the Raj Sing led faction of the Demerara Cricket Board in now the only entity lawfully entitled to administer cricket in Demerara. 

The ruling came despite reports in Guyana that Minister of Labour Mansoor Nadir had rushed through and registered as a Friendly Society the Bissoondyal faction of the Demerara Cricket Board. Senior Counsel in Guyana who did not wish to be named said that that would mean that the Bissoondyal faction is now outside the control of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) since the GCB is a registered Friendly Society with its affiliates all being unincorporated entities.Additionally, the newly registered Bissoondyal faction of the Demerara Cricket Board does not include in its membership the East bank Cricket Association and the West Demerara Cricket Association which would mean that if the Bissoondyal faction's registration is proper and allowed to represent Demerara Cricket then two divisions have no affiliation to the Guyana Cricket Board; plunging all the club players in the excluded clubs into non-selection for the Guyana Cricket Team. In cricket circles it is being said that the folly of Bissoondyal and his polotical gang have been exposed as they have now apparently "out-smarted" thenselves, to use popular Guyanese parlance.

Additionally, Bissoondyal boasted last night that his political backers will force the High Court judge to rule in his favour when the matter comes up for hearing. He boasted that "we will have to tell the judge what to do"; however, the same Senior Counsel in Guyana said he doubted this judge in particular could be subject to external influence in matters before him.

Dinanath Ramnarine, the Chief Executive of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) last night in an invited comment said that "its unfortunate that the backward judicial system of Guyana is the forum for all this litigation [there was an injunction granted against WIPA by the Chief Justice of Guyana]; the judges there are not capable of understanding the issues at hand. These matters should be heard in Trinidad". Ramnarine said he had spoken to Roachie [Bissoondyal is called "Roachie" by his friends] and he was confident that the proper Board would soon be administering Demerara cricket. Ramnarine said he is unlikely to visit Guyana in the near future unless a meeting with Bissoondyal or the politicians is necessary. "Boy, I am in contact with Roachie and Irfan [junior Minister of Housing Irfan Ali] all the time by telephone, I don't need to go there ... yes?" Ramnarine said with a smile. "Don't worry; we have things under control" he said.

The Court matter continues on 28th February 2011.

Bissoondyal: "I have money so I control dem black people on my Board"

Mr. Bissoondyal Singh, leader of the Bissoondyal led faction of the Demerara Cricket Board, speaking in the company of friends and his lawyer at a Sleep In hotel in Georgetown on Friday night boasted that no member of his faction of the Demerara Cricket Board was free to vote at the upcoming Guyana Cricket Board elections in an independent manner. "I tell them who to vote for" he said. He further went on to say that he had made promises to the politicians to deliver the Board to them to be used as a tool in the upcoming election campaign and as such he had to take instruction from the politicians and his Board members in turn had to follow his instructions. Bissoondyal boasted that the vice-president of his faction of the Demerara Cricket Board, former West Indies Test Player Roger Harper had no say in the decisions of the Board. Bissoondyal boasted to his friends that "black people greedy, is only lil money they want and they have to depend on indians for the money, we own them". He said Roger Harper was not working at the moment and was being supported by hand outs from him of which he said he had plenty. He further went on to comment that "pacer" Adonis who has been involved in Demerara Cricket for more than a decade was now squarely on his side because of the "couple thousand dollars" I give him every week. Adonis would do "anything I ask him to do" because of the "lil freck" I give him every week. That is how you control black people he declared.

Bissoondyal admitted that he was dependent on the support of Harper, Adonis and Chairman of National Selectors Claude Rafael to be elected but he said he was sure of the support because "Rafael goes to Berbice for me ... look he going on Sunday again (last Sunday) and he gotta go because he bruk and is me who he gotta beg for a small piece". In a comment about the appointment of Mark Harper as the National Cricket Team Coach, Bissoondyal defended his fight against Mark Harper at the Board level when a vote was being taken on the appointment saying "Mark ain't nobody; I gotta put somebody there who I could control and Mark don't even listen to Roger most of the time".

Bissoondyal boasted that he had the votes to win the Presidency of the Guyana Cricket Board because he had bought out four votes from the Berbice Cricket Board. "Bai, I telling you, I gat money so I will always control dem black people ... all you need to do is give them a two thousand now and then and they will follow you like a dog everywhere".

Bissoondyal was confident that his faction would be the faction that would go to the Guyana Cricket Board Elections because of the political clique he had behind him. "I don't care about any constitution or any Court or what anybody else say ... I taking over the Board and all I need is for the Ministers I have behind me to do what I say and I got it covered". He openly admitted that the interference of political elements was an integral part of him succeeding and he feared if the  High Court got involved to examine things that would interfere with is march to the Presidency of the Guyana Cricket Board.

Nandlall Brands Sports Minister as Weak and Confused

Guyanese lawyer Anil Nandlall confirmed whilst having a casual drink with friends and playing table tennis that he indeed spoke to Minister of Sports Dr. Frank Anthony about the latter's recognition of the Bissoondyal (also known as Roachie) led Demerara Cricket Board in the precincts of Parliament Building during the budget debates and the Minister indeed confirmed that he was in full recognition of the Bissoondyal led faction of the Demerara Cricket Board. Nandlall confirmed in a conversation with the a source that after the meeting in Parliament "I instructed Frank to meet with Roachie and make public his pronouncement about recognising Roachie as the President of the Demerara Cricket Board". Nandlall was speaking about the public controversy created by the Kaieteur News story of Sunday 30th January 2011 where it was reported that he had said that the Minister of Sport had recognised the Bissoondyal led faction of the Demerara Cricket Board; only for the Minister to deny every speaking to the Nandlall on the subject two days later in a separate article in the same Newspaper. However, Nandlall admitted personally calling Sean Devers before the publication of the initial story in the Sunday Kaieteur Newspapers asking that it not be published and directing that the Chronicle Newspapers and the Guyana Times not carry the statements which he had made at a public press conference. He said he only asked to stop the publication because he knows that "Frank is weak" and "afraid of his own shadow".

The flamboyant lawyer went on to further say the the Minister of Sports is weak and is not standing up to what he had agreed. Nandlall further said that junior Minister of Housing Irfan Ali and Minister of Labour Mansoor Nadir and himself were working assiduously to ensure that Bissoondyal's campaign to be President of the Guyana Cricket Board was successful and that the Minister of Sports "could not decide things on his own when I have the Party [PPP/C] campaigning for Roachie". Nandlall said further that he had instructed Minister Nadir to delay the Guyana Cricket Board elections so that he could get control of the votes necessary to elect Bissoondyal. He asked rhetorically  "Mansoor is also acting on instructions so how could Frank say that he did not recognise Roachie?"

Nandlall also confirmed that he had personally spoken to Chief Justice Ian Chang and had other "persons in Government" speak to the the Chief Justice to prevent the Raj Singh lead faction of the Demerara Cricket Board from getting a judge to hear their application for an injunction. Nandlall said that on the Saturday of the Demerara Board elections the Raj Singh led faction were seeking to have an injunction application heard to stop the Bissoondyal led faction from holding elections but he had to speak to the Chief Justice to prevent it being heard. Nandlall further said "I had to ask the [Attorney General Charles] Ramson to meet with [Chief Justice] Chang; and they met at Natoo's Bar and Ramson had to make it clear that the injunction could not be heard before the elections". "So how is it that all the other Ministers are acting in support of Roachie and Frank is saying I am lying?" Nandlall asked.

Further, Nandlall said persons who were appointed as  Minister of Government "must have backbone" and stand up when necessary and keep their word and he disappointed the Sports Minister was not displaying those characteristics. He said further, in the next Government he doubted that "Frank would be a Minister of any portfolio; he is too much of a coward to be in Cabinet".

Chairman of Selectors Slams Government Over Non-Payment of Monies

In a startling disclosure Claude Rafael, Chairman of Selectors of the Guyana National Cricket Team slammed the Government of Guyana for not paying the full sponsorship monies due to the Guyana Cricket Team. Sources say the startling revelations were made over the last weekend by Rafael in the presence of several persons at a cricket associated event.

The Guyana Cricket Team upon winning the Caribbean Twenty/ 20 Tournament in July, 2010 were the representatives of the region at the Airtel Champions League 2010 in South Africa. The team then received numerous offers to sponsor them in the Airtel Champions League 2010; but the then acting Minister of Sport Irfan Ali insisted he could arrange for a more lucrative sponsorship commitment that was being offered to the Guyana Cricket Board at the time. In the end the Guyana Cricket Board had no sponsor and President Bharrat Jagdeo to sponsor the Cricket Team and ensure the Team had the necessary funding to prepare and participate in the Champions League. The urgent and magnanimous act of the Guyanese President saved the day for the Guyana Cricket Team. However, sources at the Berbice Cricket Board have confirmed that to date the Government of Guyana has not paid the full sponsorship amount to date.

The Cricket Crusader was able to confirm Rafael's statements from multiple persons present at the gathering. The Chairman revealed that one of the officials seeking to be elected President of the Guyana Cricket Board, Bissoondyal Singh, had informed him that he had gotten junior Minister of Housing Mr. Irfan Ali to block the sponsorship payment due tot he players. Rafael said the PPP Government was most likely not paying money to the players because they wanted to siphon off the money to fund their participation in the upcoming General Elections.

Persons at the event said Rafael was adamant that Bissoondyal would be the next President of the Guyana Cricket Board but he doubted whether the Government would even pay the money even then; because as he said "dem man corrupt" and "nobody gon get that money from them". 

Rafael said further that its only the players who will suffer because of the pure greed of the Guyana Government. The sponsorship money was to be paid in part to the players.

Guyana Risk Ban From International Cricket

Guyana was plunged into chaos following newspapers reports on Sunday in that country that the Minister of Sport Dr. Frank Anthony had endorsed a faction of the conflicted Demerara Cricket Board. The Demerara Cricket Board, according to newspapers reports, has two factions at present contending they are the lawful Board charges with administering cricket in the county of Demerara. The Demerara Cricket Board Executive Committee under the direction of the Honourable Chief Justice Ian Chang met on Monday 17th January 2011 and fixed its Annual General Meeting (AGM) for Saturday 22nd January 2011 at the Wales Community Centre Ground. However, the incumbent Present Mr. Bissoondyal Singh fearing that he was going to loose that election and be voted out of office unilaterally decided to hold a separate meeting with parties favourable to him, on the same day, at the Lusignan Community Centre Ground. The result was that at the lawful AGM, Mr. Raj Singh was elected as the President of the Demerara Cricket Board. Mr. Bissoondyal defiantly contends that he is the elected President of the Demerara Cricket Board

The unlawful elections held by Mr. Bissoondyal was widely covered by the State media; whilst the Raj Singh election was not carried in the State media leading to speculation that there was political interference in the administration of cricket in Demerara. This was confirmed when it was made known in cricketing circles that the junior Minister in the Ministry of Housing Irfan Ali was threatening State and Government officials and employees that were on cricket boards nationwide that they had to support Bissoondyal to be President of Demerara Cricket Board and Guyana Cricket Board. This macabre act of political interference has on numerous occasions been confirmed by the candidate Bissoondyal himself where sources have confirmed that he is boasting that he has the support of Ministers of Government so the democratic election process is irrelevant to him. The interference of Ministers of Government was confirmed by Bissoondyal lawyer when he made the spectacular statement, carried in the Sunday edition Kaieteur Newspapers that the Minister of Sport had infact recognised Bissoondyal as the elected President of Demerara Cricket Board. This alarming level of political interference have raised concerns at the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) level, where a source who wishes to remain anonymous have said that if the level of political interference continues in Guyana's cricket there would be no alternative but to ban Guyana from participation in international cricket. The source continued that this would have adverse repercussions for the Guyanese players int he West Indies Team. Ronnie Sarwan and Shiv Chanderpaul may find themselves being unable to represent the West Indies until such a ban is lifted.

The WICB source was at pains to point out that such a ban would be catastrophic to cricket in Guyana and the region as a whole but the rules of the International Cricket Council and the WICB were clear that political interference in cricket in any level was unacceptable and that the democratic selection process of electing the cricket boards at the various levels of cricket in the territories had to be respected at all times.

The level of political interference in sport in the West Indies is strongly frowned upon and even in the several impasses with the West Indies players and the West Indies Cricket Board; no direct intervention was tolerated. The CARICOM Heads of State formed a Committee to try and mediate the issue; so the action by Guyana's Ministers of Government raises serious concerns in the region.

The failure of the Ministers of Government in Guyana to respect and adhere to the democratic process of voting to elect leaders is quite ironic since this is an election year in Guyana. 

It is hoped that Guyana cricket returns to the democratic process soon.