Latest update April 20th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 02, 2014 Sports
Dear Editor,
The constitution of the Georgetown Cricket Association in Article 12 (1) specifically states “The highest authority of the Association shall be the Annual General Meeting which shall be held in the month of January on a date and at a venue to be decided upon by the Executive Committee”.
Before Mr. Harper’s term of Office commenced four years ago, all the previous GCA Presidents understood and respected this sacred document that governed them called the constitution. I am aware that Mr. Harper attended Queens College, the very best Secondary educational institution in Guyana and surely this article in the constitution should not pose a challenge for him to read, interpret and act upon. This article is very clear and unambiguous.
Mr. Roger Harper has once again breached the requirements of the GCA Constitution as no AGM of this association has been held during January. Mr. Harper did this same thing before, and on that occasion he claimed, even though he had been the President for an entire year, that he did not have a copy of his own Association’s constitution.
How can a leader of an entity function effectively without even possessing, reading, understanding and being guided by the rules of that organization? Mr. Harper should be ashamed to even mouth his ineptitude in that revelation. I wonder what would be his excuse this time around.
Mr. Harper and his Executives also seem to be have forgotten about Article 15 (1) of their constitution which states “The Executive Committee shall give at least 28 days’ notice to the members of the holding of the Annual General Meeting…….and further, in the case of the Annual General Meeting the notice shall be published in a national newspaper circulating in Guyana at least One month before the holding of the Annual General Meeting”.
I spoke to at least three First Division Clubs in Georgetown and up to today (31st January 2014) not one of them had received an official notice of the GCA Annual General Meeting for 2014. This article is two-pronged. Firstly, each member club has to be given notice and also a notice has to be published in a national newspaper. This is another very clear breach of the constitution as a notice should have been sent to each individual member club.
This is gross hypocrisy by Mr. Roger Harper since he took the Demerara Cricket Board and the Guyana Cricket Board to court, to stop Annual General Meetings that were constitutionally required and for which ample notices were given. In fact, those matters are still pending and those Boards had to put up defences to Mr. Harper’s court actions.
Mr. Harper is known to defy rules and constitutions as I was present on one occasion at an AGM of the GCA when Elections were due and Mr. Harper boisterously stated in a true dictatorial style, “I put a motion to the floor that the term of office be changed from one to two years, any objections…, motion is carried”.
Attorney at Law Mr. Glen Hanoman, a delegate for GCC, stood up and asked “Are you changing the constitution just like that?” He was vociferously scolded by Mr. Harper to have a seat as the motion was already carried.
The GCA constitution regarding alteration of its constitution in Article 20 states “The constitution of the Association may be amended on a motion before the AGM, which is supported by at least 2/3 of those eligible to vote”. The Constitution also further states in Article 15 (1) in regards to motions for the AGM “Motions for the AGM shall be submitted to the Executive Committee at least Seven days before the date of the holding of the Annual General Meeting”. This aspect of that motion was not adhered to.
It was obvious that no one present as delegates on that day, including Mr. Glen Hanoman had any clue about a written motion to change the GCA Constitution and they were all left literally dumbfounded by a rampaging Harper ably (mis)guided by his cohorts, the disgruntled group of Claude Raphael, Ronald Williams and Bissoondyal Singh.
However, no one should have been surprised as the exact situation exists on the East Coast where Mr. Harper’s comrade, Bissoondyal Singh, unilaterally did the exact thing and no one has a clue when his AGM will be held. These are the blatant shenanigans that these guys are performing to keep themselves in power. How can these guys reconcile their actions?
No one in their right mind can question the tremendous exploits of Messrs. Harper and Lloyd on the field of play as they have both made this entire nation proud of their numerous accomplishments and accolades that they racked up representing Guyana and the West Indies. However, they continue to tarnish and destroy their otherwise stellar reputation as cricketers by allowing themselves to be manipulated and used by a bunch of disgruntled and power hungry former administrators.
These actions by these two great cricketers are surely a sad reflection of their administrative ability and lend credence to the fact that some cricketers are just not cut out to be administrators of the game.
I urge the Clubs in Georgetown to put a stop to this nonsense.
Yours Sincerely,
Intikhab Sankar
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