GCB Secretary throws full support behind Skerritt

By Akeem Greene

Cricket West Indies (CWI) Director and Secretary of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), Anand Sanasie, has offered unflinching support to newly-elected CWI President, Ricky Skerritt.

Prior to last Sunday’s elections, Sanasie had announced in a section of the media Guyana’s intention to vote for the incumbent Whycliffe ‘Dave’ Cameron.

Cameron and his Vice-president Emmanuel Nathan subsequently lost 4-8 to Skerritt and his running mate Dr. Kishore Shallow at the polls in Jamaica.

Contacted by News Room Sport on Friday, Sanasie stated: “I always support; whoever is the chair has my support; whoever is the President of the West Indies cricket board has my support 100%”.

His comments came moments after Skerritt, in an exclusive interview with News Room Sport on Friday, stated “it won’t be business as usual on the Guyana issue.”

Skerritt was at the time responding to questions on the status of the GCB given elections have not been held in close to a decade, mainly as a result of a plethora of court matters.

The new CWI boss admitted that the “legal claims and the uncertainty about the legitimacy of the Guyana Board” only came to his attention during the campaign.

“I’ve been on the Cricket West Indies Board for some time, and it has never come up in a Board meeting, so clearly the previous dispensation was to be totally oblivious to any local problems in Guyana,” Skerritt claimed.

VIDEO LINK TO SKERRITT INTERVIEW: https://www.facebook.com/newsroomgy/videos/581527295688982/

Sanasie is not the first ‘pro-Cameron’ Director to support the new CWI head post-elections, as Barbados Cricket Association president, Conde Riley, has made public his intention to work with Skerritt.

Riley said: “This is not about Skerritt, Cameron or Riley, it is about cricket. The elections are over and it is time to move on.”

No ill-will

Meanwhile, Skerritt mentioned that he was contacted by Sanasie this week, and the conversation was very cordial.

Skerritt said: “He (Sanasie) called me to wish me all the best and indicate a couple of matters of concern to him…so there’s no ill-will and acrimony between Dr. Shallow and myself and the current representatives of Guyana. Let me make it clear that our interest is cricket. We’ve said ‘Cricket First’; we want the best possible support and the best possible inputs and outputs wherever cricket is played in the Caribbean.”

Ombudsman

One of the hurdles to the GCB not having elections has been the lack of an Ombudsman. Historian Dr. Winston McGowan, who was appointed to that post in 2015, as prescribed by the Cricket Administration Act, later resigned.

Recently, Minister of Social Cohesion Dr. George Norton, who has responsibility for Sport, appointed a new Ombudsman, and it was revealed that elections could be held by January 2020.

Incidentally, the new appointment was not greeted warmly by stakeholders, with some asking for President David Granger to rescind the appointment on the basis that the Minister did not exercise due diligence.