Letter to Sports Editior

Dear Sir,
Please be informed that contrary to a statement made in your daily edition on the 4th of March by Mr Anand Sanasie, I, in my capacity as President of the Berbice Cricket Board, has never been involved in the selection of officials for matches in Berbice. All officials are selected by the Berbice Cricket Umpires Association with no input from me or the BCB. Venues are selected by the BCB. A simple phone call to the Association President, Joseph Simon or Secretary, Moses Ramphal can confirm this. In the past, the Board had always selected match officials for semis and finals, but even this was stopped by my administration and placed in the hands of the Umpires Association.

On the point of venues, they are always selected with the main objectives of promoting the game at the grass-root level and also to avoid home advantage to any one team. Finals have been played at several venues across Berbice including Bush Lot, Canje, Cumberland. Fyrish, Albion, Port Mourant, No 69, No 72, Crabwood Creek, and Cotton Tree among others.
My club, the RHTY&SC has been involved in over 20 finals since my election as BCB President in 2018 and only two of those finals have been played at the Area H Ground, our home venue. Surely, if I was thinking about my club’s own interest, then much more would have been played there. What is even, more amazing is that we lost those two finals at home while we won 20 playing at Fyrish, Albion, Port Mourant, No 69, Cumberland and Hampshire. Home advantage is not important when you have full confidence in your own skills on the cricket field.
The GCB should take a page out of our book and start playing inter-county matches out of Demerara. Why in heaven’s name must one county have all the home advantage in inter-county tournaments along with umpires that are from that county as well.
Bring the Demerara players to Albion, Cumberland, Bush Lot or Port Mourant and let them know how to play away from home. The BCB would be willing to assist with funds if that is a problem. Those grounds have been used for the GCB franchise matches and as such, should be good enough for Under-15, Under-17 , Under-19 and female matches.
I want to make it quite clear that I did not approach the media to make a statement about umpiring, but rather a journalist called me to ask my views about the questionable decisions against Berbice in the Under-17 tournament. That same journalist had reported on the sad standard of the umpiring in his report of the match. By the way, it does not matter how hard a person work to qualify themselves ,what is important is the way they do their job on the cricket field, by being fair to everyone After all, they are paid handsomely to umpire after they qualify, it is not a voluntary position. Some of the worst umpiring decisions on a cricket field are made by the most qualified. Qualifications have nothing to do with fairness. I wish to reassure all umpires in Guyana that I have the highest regard for them and respect their contributions to the game.
In closing, I would like to ask if umpires are above the law that no one can question them. On television, we hear commentators questioning them; we see bad decisions been overturned on review and in some cases, players show their frustrations for the public to see.
As President of the BCB, I would always put my county’s interest first and speak out when necessary. I would also work every day to lift Berbice cricket higher ,to make sure that every youth is given the chance to fulfil their own skills and to always represent the interest of all our players without thinking about personal reward, the colour of their skin, texture of their hair or which club they come from.
My sole aim in cricket is to make a positive difference, to offer youths an alternative to the evil ways of Satan and nothing else.

Hilbert Foster,
BCB President