Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 22, 2021 Sports
Kaieteur News – Attorney-at-Law C.V. Satram, representing his client Anand Sanasie Secretary of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), has cited what he notes as inconsistencies in the appointment of the current Cricket Ombudsman and the setting of a date for elections of the GCB by Minister of Sports Charles Ramson Jnr.
As a consequence the attorney in his missive carbon copied (CC) to Mr. Kamal Ramkarran,
Attorney-at-Law, the newly appointed Cricket Ombudsman, notes that the actions by the Minister and ‘the decisions to appoint the Cricket Ombudsman and to fix a date for the holding of elections of the GCB are illegal, invalid, null, void and of no legal effect.’
Here is the full text of the letter sent to the Minister:
Re: Appointment of Cricket Ombudsman & the date for the holding of Guyana Cricket Board elections
We act for Mr. Anand Sanasie, Secretary of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) and Director of Cricket West Indies Inc. (CWI) formerly the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). We have read your notice published on the 19th February, 2021 purporting to appoint a Cricket Ombudsman and fixing the date for the elections of the GCB acting in accordance with the powers vested in you by sections 7 and 17 respectively of the Guyana Cricket Administration Act, Chapter 21:03, Laws of Guyana (Cricket Administration Act).
The Minister of Sport was only once permitted by the said Act to appoint a Cricket Ombudsman. Your recent purported appointment by Notice of 19th February, 2021 is the third such appointment of a Cricket Ombudsman by a Minister. Your predecessors in office Dr. George Norton and Dr. Frank Anthony had done so in 2015 and 2017, respectively. Professor Winston McGowan was the first Cricket Ombudsman to have been appointed by Dr. Anthony and although he later resigned his office his appointment was never declared to be invalid.
In the circumstance your appointment of Mr. Kamal Ramkarran, Attorney-at-Law as Cricket Ombudsman is unlawful and of no effect.
Your acts are in excess of the powers conferred upon you by the Act. Our client notes the rushed manner in which the date for the GCB elections was fixed. Our client is aware that you share a close relationship with the President of CWI Mr. Ricky Skerritt who is being challenged by our client for the Presidency of CWI at the upcoming CWI elections to be held in March, 2021.
The period of 7 days for the holding of elections is unreasonable and does not allow the Cricket Ombudsman to carry out his statutory function of establishing and verifying a Register of Clubs before the holding of the GCB elections. The time frame fixed is not in accordance with the Constitution of the GCB, Schedule I of the Cricket Administration Act.
The membership of the GCB has a right to and/or a legitimate expectation that a period of at least thirty (30) days would be given before the holding of any elections.
Members must be allowed a reasonable period to identify delegates and contestants and to canvas support for the elections. The rules of the GCB also permit the presentation of Motions for consideration at the meeting.
You committed an egregious error of law when you purported to consult with the President of CWI alone. The President has an interest to serve in this matter and the Cricket Administration Act clearly requires that you engage in meaningful consultation with the Board of CWI. No such consultation took place. Our client is a Director of the Board and no meeting to discuss the appointment of the Cricket Ombudsman and the fixing of a date for GCB elections was called or ever took place.
In all the circumstances, the decisions to appoint the Cricket Ombudsman and to fix a date for the holding of elections of the GCB are illegal, invalid, null, void and of no legal effect. Former Minister of Sport Dr. George Norton had fixed a date for elections.
Your powers under the Act are clearly at an end if they ever existed in you at all at the time of your notice on the 19th February, 2021. We have written to the Cricket Ombudsman and copied you. If we do not hear from the Cricket Ombudsman by 9am tomorrow, Monday 22nd February, 2021 then legal proceedings will be filed to quash your decision and for a declaration that you have no power under the Cricket Administration Act or at all to fix or further fix a date for the elections or to make any appointment or any further appointment of a Cricket Ombudsman.
Yours sincerely,
C.V. Satram
Attorney-at-Law
CC: Mr. Kamal Ramkarran
Attorney-at-Law
Meanwhile, the attorney has also written to Mrs. Alana Medford-Singh The Secretary Cricket West Indies Inc. on their consultation with the Minister of Sports. The attorney on behalf of his client sought to know the nature of the consultation and question why was the entire CWI Board not informed of such.
Here is the text of the letter to the CWI Secretary:
RE: Consultation by Minister of Sport of Guyana
We write on behalf of Anand Sanasie, Secretary to the Guyana Cricket Board and Director of Cricket West Indies Inc. (CWI). It has come to our client’s attention by a Notice published by the Minister of Sport in Guyana on the 19th February, 2021 that the said Minister held consultations with Cricket West Indies on the appointment of a Cricket Ombudsman in Guyana and the fixing of a date for the elections of the Guyana Cricket Board.
No meeting of the Board was called to consider the matter which appears to have been raised directly with the President of CWI who is in regular communication with the Minister. The Minister was required to consult with the Board and not the President of CWI. We will be grateful to know the form and nature of the consultation which the Minister speaks of, if there was any such consultation.
If there was any such consultation with the President, we will be grateful to learn from the President why the board was not involved in the decision in which the President supported the unreasonable and unlawful decision of the Minister of Sport in Guyana.
The President may have acted unethically in a matter in which he has a personal interest, by not bringing the question to the Board as he is obliged to do. The President is being challenged by our client in the upcoming elections and he knew or ought to know that his unilateral decision to support the decision of the Minister is likely to undermine our client’s efforts at being elected.
Legal proceedings will be launched in the High Court of Guyana to challenge the decision of the Minister. Your response is needed for use in those proceedings.
Your failure to respond may compel us to name the President in those proceedings in which we will allege that the President acted improperly and will urge the Court to so find.
We are grateful for your urgent response.
Yours sincerely,
C.V. Satram
Attorney-at-Law
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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