Guyana National Assembly approves Cricket Administration Bill

Guyana’s National Assembly on Thursday approved long-awaited legislation governing the administration of cricket in the country.

Attorney General, Anil Nandlall said the Cricket Administration Bill stemmed from advice by Chief Justice Ian Chang in which he had noted that neither the umbrella Guyana Cricket Board nor any of the county boards was a legal entity.

The Cricket Administration Bill is the product of extensive legal advice and drafting, based on the consultations, by lawyers Miles Fitzpatrick, Edward Luckhoo, Stephen Fraser and Chief Parliamentary Council, Cecil Durjohn.

Guyana now follows Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados as the other countries whose cricket boards are legal entities. The law provides for very minimal ministerial involvement.

The bill brings to an end four years of legal , administrative and political wrangling locally.

With the dissolution of the old Guyana Cricket Board and the establishment of an Interim Management Committee (IMC), the West Indies Cricket Board had not recognised that local body and had declined to include Guyana in its itineraies.

The Alliance For Change (AFC) did not support  the passage of the Bill, leaving A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) to lend its 27 seat support to the government’s 32 to have the Bill approved.