– lack of communication with GCB, NSC is worrying trend
A cricket camp held by the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) and Region Six Sports Organizer Godwin Allicock at the Albion Community Centre ground commenced on Tuesday August 27 and concluded today, Friday August 30.
Berbice Cricket Board President, Hilbert Foster
Because it involved the Region Six Sports Organiser, an employee and hence a representative of the National Sports Commission (NSC), itself an arm of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports; and because it was held under the auspices of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), of which the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) is an affiliate; and especially because it was held in Berbice, where the BCB is responsible for the administration of cricket, this development has been the source of considerable alarm and much disgust for the BCB.
Contending that it was never even notified about this camp by any of the parties involved in its holding, the Berbice Cricket Board has said it would like to make the following pellucid:
We welcome the cooperation of all stakeholders in the development of our cricket, and we are committed to working along with everyone, once the main objective is to develop all potential talent in the county. The BCB has the best developmental training programme of any Cricket Board in Guyana, and we invest heavily in a countywide coaching system.
We are quite concerned and alarmed that the NSC, the GCB, and the Sports Ministry would be involved in a cricket coaching programme in Berbice and not at least contact the BCB in an effort to ensure that all the clubs in Berbice and the best players benefit therefrom.
Further, the BCB contends that only a select few clubs were invited to send players to this camp, all other clubs were ignored. One notable omission was the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTY&SC), MS, which has the most structured youth development system in the county, and arguably in the country. Other clubs in the list of those never consulted or informed were: Rose Hall Canje; Mt Sinai; Edinburgh; Upper Corentyne, and the Young Warriors.
The BCB is contending that the Government of Guyana and its sports officials should be working in the interest of all youths, and no reason can be advanced why this should not be so.
Moreover, the BCB has charged that since election of its current executives, this Region 6 Sports Officer has been very hostile to the BCB and the RHTY&SC, MS.
“We are therefore wondering if this is the reason why both bodies were bypassed,” the BCB has said.
The BCB has said that, in an attempt to reconcile whatever real or perceived grievance might be existing between these sporting arms of the Government and the BCB, it would like to give the following reassurance: We are committed to working with the NSC, and urge the Director of Sports to look into this strange development. One of the stated objectives of the camp was to identify young female cricketers for the future, yet the only club with female players was neither ever informed about the camp or invited to attend.
The BCB is also appealing to the Government of Guyana to inform its sports officials in Berbice that personal vendettas and score-settling have no place in the development of sports.
