TTCB completes misconduct investigation

TTCB completes misconduct investigation



Published: Guardian
Saturday, December 10, 2016

TTCB President... Azim Bassarath
The T&T Cricket Board’s (TTCB) two-man committee set up to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by a local cricket official has been completed and the verdict will be made public soon.

Dinanath Ramnarine, a national league representative sent out a press release on Friday which stated that he and members of his NLC (National League Committee) group were very upset about recent news reports which alleged that a national youth cricketer was sexually molested by a national cricket official.

The release stated: “As members of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board, we are outraged to learn that the President of the TTCB, Mr. Azim Bassarath received a complaint from the alleged victim five months ago which was promptly swept under the carpet.

“We wish to state categorically that at no time was anyone of us, as board members, informed by the TTCB leadership on this issue. We understand that, now that the allegation has been made public, TTCB President Mr. Azim Bassarath and 2nd Vice President, Mr. Lalman Kowlessar met with the player this morning and promised “action”.

In light of their failure to act for five months, we have absolutely no confidence in anything being done and consider their response to be cheap public relations.”

Ramnarine said the player made a written report of sexual misconduct to the manager of the T&T Under 19 team on or around July 2016 during the Under 19 tournament in St. Vincent.

Sometime later, having gotten no response to his complaint, the player contacted the manager to inquire about what action was being taken in response to his complaint.

The Manager told the player that he had given a copy of the report to the President of the TTCB and the Executive, a week or so after the series on their return to Trinidad in late July 2016.

Follow up inquiries by both the player and the manager yielded nothing more than a response that the matter was still with the TTCB president and executive.

Yesterday, Patrick Rampersad the third vice-president of TTCB, who spoke to the Sunday Guardian and said: “Investigations into the allegations have been conducted by the committee put together by the board and very soon we the executive will get the report and make it public.”↔The two-man committee put together to deal with the matter is president of the TTCB, Azim Bassarath and first vice-president Lalman Kowlessar.

“This is a very sensitive issue and it needs to be dealt with in a very careful manner. The committee did their work and they are currently compiling their report to present to the board. We at the TTCB always take a very careful and professional approach in dealing with matters like these and we are doing the same here with this one.”

It takes 5 months ? I see a cover up here .

Bassarat and his cronies must resign  > >

The TTCB have no spine as usual. It's the same nonchalant attitude when it comes to defending our top players against the WICB.

It's really sad to see these situation taking so long to be handled and most of the times nothing is done. I also think resignation is the only course of action possible here, just to start with.  ::