Re-elected Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) President Bissoondyal Singh has big plans for governance reform and leadership of cricket in the Caribbean region, a topic on which he has been extremely vocal in the past few months.
As such, addressing a major move for cricket recently, Singh highlighted that Guyana’s President, Dr Irfaan Ali is best suited for the chairmanship of Caricom’s Sub-committee on Cricket.
“We’re very, very excited and to me, it’s the best person to be the Chairman on that Sub-Committee at Caricom. This is a man who understands what is required to be done,” Singh assured.
Recently re-elected GCB President Bissoondyal Singh
Alongside Barbadian Cricket Association (BCA) President Conde Riley, Singh has been vocal about recent moves in governance reform made by Cricket West Indies (CWI).
As such, opining that boardroom decisions directly affect the game, Singh assured that he would not allow a power struggle for leadership occur at the CWI level as it did in Guyana a few years ago.
The GCB President explained, “You’re right to say that we’re serious on governance, because we had a 10- year battle in Guyana to bring some stability and integrity and transparency to this great game and we’re not going to go to a higher level and allow anything of the same sort to happen without being vocal. And it’s important for us to see, look the Champions Trophy is going on currently and West indies is not participating, that’s a sad situation.
“It has to do with what we do inside the boardroom; it projects on the field. What the Barbados Cricket Association and the Guyana Cricket Board have been fighting for all the time, we don’t need to see cosmetic changes in governance, you need to have governance changes that affect what is going on within the boundary and not beyond the boundary. Anything that’s happening beyond the boundary and doesn’t affect things within the boundary is a waste of time. And so, we’re not going to participate in any exercise of futility,” Singh passionately expressed.
Touching on Guyana’s lack of international fixtures for 2025, the GCB boss made a call for rotation of CWI’s presidency and a clear development plan.
President Dr Irfaan Ali was recently appointed Chairman of Caricom’s Sub-committee on Cricket
He highlighted, “As it relates to the fixtures, how you put games in the different territories, you know Guyana has no games in 2025 and in 2026, you have three which is only three female games. We’re yet to understand how they arrive at these fixtures, but you can see in other territories, for example in Windwards, Windwards has 32 playing days between 2025 and 2027. How do you arrive at that with Guyana 3?
“We were made to understand that India is coming to Guyana in 2027 and now we’re hearing that the system change, you have to bid for it. Why aren’t other territories bidding for it? And that’s why the rotation of presidency is important, so you have a continuity going on with what management is set to happen.
“And then you need to have a massive cricket development plan. A medium-, short- and long-term plan,” Singh suggested.
Revisiting President Ali’s appointment, Singh suggested ways in which Caricom can get involved in CWI’s management, noting that Guyana’s Head of State was already 10 steps ahead.
“Similarly, when I got into office, we put together a five-year strategic plan and tabled it with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport. You need to have a strategic plan and table it with Caricom. You need to have somebody from Caricom, appoint a technocrat on the West Indies board and look into the reconstruction of school cricket and infrastructure, grounds and so on,” the GCB President highlighted.
Singh further opined, “Guyana has gone far ahead with our President launching five new stadiums and hundreds of grounds being fixed across Guyana. So, we’re a bit in front, that’s why I said President Ali knows what is required to be done and this has to be done throughout the Caribbean.
“We have to do it seriously, not just have these cosmetic changes that you have the tenure of office for the Vice President and President moving from two years to three years with three consecutive terms. I don’t know how that will fix anything on the field.”
Singh was unanimously re-elected as GCB President last Saturday and will serve another four-year term.
