Upper Demerara Cricket Association rejects phantom Demerara Cricket Board

{kaiteurnewsonline}Dear Sports Editor,
As has become the norm, pronouncements by the phantom Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) are fraught with inaccuracies and dishonesty and are clearly designed to mislead the Courts and the public.
The latest escapade of the DCB is an article carried in the daily newspapers of May 31, 2014 stating that “the Demerara Cricket Board is withholding authentication of the elections of the Upper Demerara Cricket Association (UDCA) and is recording its strongest objection to the recent announcement of the elections purported to be that of the UDCA”.
Of significance is the fact that the UDCA is not and has never been a member of the DCB and the DCB had absolutely no jurisdiction for cricket in Upper Demerara at the present time. The UDCA has, for over ten (10) years, made numerous attempts to be affiliated to the DCB in order to be recognized as a cricket association, take part in competitions in Demerara and to receive funding and cricket equipment.
For reasons only known to the phantom DCB, the UDCA’s application for membership has, on every occasion, been rejected. The UDCA has been in existence since 2000, has a membership of eighteen (18) clubs, a constitution and an Executive Committee in place. It represents an area that has over forty thousand (40,000) citizen of Guyana. Many national cricketers at the various levels, including Dr. Vincent Adams, Mark Grenville, Lambert Blackman, Anthony Rigby and Vibert Johashen have come from the Upper Demerara region.
There was a concerted lobbing by the Stakeholders of Guyana Cricket including the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB), Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) and the East Coast Cricket Board (ECCB) for membership by the UDCA to the DCB. This found favor with the Parliamentary Special Select Committee (Guyana Cricket Administration Bill 2012) and the Bill now provides for the inclusion of the UDCA in the DCB.
To strengthen our claim that there is no legal DCB Executive Body, we are reminded that the Hon. Justice James Bovell-Drakes had ruled that both factions of the DCB were injuncted and were restrained from performing any act or function of the DCB. This matter is currently before the Hon. Justice William Ramlall.
In January 2013 Hon. Justice Madam Diane Insanally issued an injunction blocking the DCB elections on January 25, 2013 or any other date until the matter is heard and determined by the court. This matter is also currently before the Hon. Justice William Ramlall. However there is a group of persons unknown to the DCB constituent members and the public pretending to be the DCB Executives. This group of persons has no legal or moral right to represent the DCB or pronounce on the elections of the UDCA. We can only assume that the sudden interest in the affairs of the UDCA by this phantom group pretending to represent the DCB has to do with the constitutional voting rights that have been conferred on the UDCA through the Guyana Cricket Administration Bill 2012.
A patent inaccuracy within the dubious DCB release is the reference of a purported injunction that the UDCA has against Mr. Roger Harper and Mr. Bissoondyal Singh.  There is no such injunction. The only injunction that the UDCA has is the one granted by the Hon. Justice Brassington Reynolds in Action Number 468-W / 2010 that restrains Rohan Sarjoo and the East Bank Demerara Cricket Association (EBDCA) from administering or in any way interfering with cricket in the Upper Demerara region.
We are convinced that the persons who proclaim that they are officials/representatives of the Demerara Cricket Board and the Guyana Cricket Board are fearful of the holding of legal and transparent elections to the extent that they had sought a court action to stop the passage of the Cricket Administration Bill even though they participated in the process.
In the meantime, Guyana’s cricket under the illegal stewardship of Anand Sanasie, Drubahadur, Raj Singh, Lalta Digamber et al continues its rapid and ignominious descent. With heavy losses and bottom-of-the-table positions for Guyana at all levels of Regional Cricket Competitions, we sincerely hope that fresh elections in accordance with the Guyana Cricket Administration Bill 2012 are held post haste to usher in decent and competent cricket administrators capable of reversing the slump in Guyana’s cricket.
Bradley Fredricks
President