GCB sits privately with Harper before going public to rubbish “ambiguous” CWI selection policy

– says President Singh

By Brandon Corlette

Cricket West Indies (CWI) Lead Selector Roger Harper is also a full voting member of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), and he is a technocrat advisor to the GCB’s Cricket Development Committee. The Bissoondyal Singh-led GCB has developed a reputation of coming out all guns blazing and rubbishing CWI selection policy.
Since Harper sits on the GCB and leads the CWI selection panel, the general public constantly asks, whether or not GCB seeks clarity on CWI selection in private, rather than coming out in the media all guns blazing.
The GCB boss, who described CWI selection policy as ambiguous, disclosed on Saturday that his Board sits in private with Harper before publicly rubbishing the selection policy. “Yes, of course. A lot of times, we have means and ways how we do it. We can stand by why we go public,” Singh said.

Singh profoundly clarified that the GCB’s position (in terms of CWI selection) is based strictly on the selection policy and not necessarily the make-up of the Harper-led panel: “This has nothing to do with personality; I want to make that absolutely clear.”
However, Harper, who is a full voting member of the GCB, was not present physically or virtually at the Board’s local press conference. When asked about what relationship the other members of the GCB has with Harper, Singh stuttered: “I do not know how to explain relationship.”

Another interesting point to note is that both Singh and GCB Vice President Hilbert Foster sit on the Board of CWI Directors. Despite having that privilege of being among those who have clarity on the selection policy, Singh said he still lacked clarity.
“We are in possession of something on their website, which does not apply to me. When we wrote CWI, this is what we got from them. We wrote them and ask them to explain the selection policy, because we don’t understand it. It’s on the website, but we don’t understand it, and the answer was that they’re not obligated to explain why X, Y and Z players were not selected,” Singh told the local media at Grand Coastal Inn.
The GCB boss added: “We still can’t get – up to now – what is really going on. Even though there is a policy, it does not apply to what’s going on. That is our major problem.”
In September 2021, when the T20 World Cup squad was announced, the GCB broke its silence, and rubbished the selection policy, questioning the competence of the selection panel.