Ganga: TTCB Executive clinging to office

FORMER West Indies and TT cricketer, Daren Ganga, said the failure of the TT Cricket Board (TTCB) to implement recommendations of the Independent Review Committee (IRC) continues to show the board’s lack of concern for TT cricket.

In September 2017, a three-person IRC was appointed by the TTCB to examine its governance structure and make recommendations. The IRC, which comprised Justice Vasheist Kokaram, journalist Dr Sheila Rampersad and former TTCB president Ellis Clark, presented a report to the executive of the TTCB on February 22, 2018, advising sweeping changes. Ganga believes the committee’s findings and recommendations are being ignored.

Ganga said the current executive of the TTCB is unwilling to accept the recommendations of the report because they might lose their jobs.

“It cannot be right that where an independent committee, comprising of a leading and progressive jurist in our country, tells the executive of the TTCB that its rules are undemocratic and not in the interest of cricket, that the executive is allowed to simply ignore that report because if the recommendations of the report are implemented it may lead to the members of the executive being deposed from office. That in my respectful view is not the act of an executive interested in cricket, that is the act of a dictatorship desperately clinging to office.”

Ganga made the statement in a press release yesterday. The former West Indies batsman, who has been advocating for changes in the TTCB, said, “I wish to condemn the Azim Bassarath lead executive of the TT Cricket Board in the strongest possible terms for its neglect and failure to implement the recommendations of an Independent Committee which was set up for the sole purpose of considering the constitutional arrangements of the cricket board.”

Ganga said the cricket community in TT wants change.

“The public would be aware there has been numerous complaints throughout the cricketing fraternity as it pertains to governance structure of the TTCB and in particular the process by which the executive of this important national institution is elected. It is the view of many learned persons that the current provisions of the TTCB constitution are undemocratic, unfair and result in the preservation of a self-serving clique and/or cabal continuously re-electing themselves to control the administration of cricket in TT,” Ganga said.