Legal Counsels back South Zone results
September 20, 2009

Forbes Persaud
... TTCB, CEO

Based on advice from eminent legal counsels the T&T Cricket Board in a press release yesterday, stated that they are convinced that the South Zonal elections were legal and constitutional. CEO and General Secretary of the TTCB, Forbes Persaud stated in the release that: “It has become necessary for the TTCB to respond to allegations being made by a group referring to themselves as the “movement for Change”, that the elections for club representatives to the south zonal council held recently were illegal and unconstitutional.

“They claim that the new clubs that were accepted in the zone should not have been allowed to vote. He added: “Please be informed that our decision was guided by article 8.02 which states “For the purpose of electing representatives referred to in Article 7.01 each club accepted in the Zone competition shall be asked to submit nominations on a prescribed form for the election of Club representatives on the Council, such nomination to be duly signed by the respective nominees.

A letter attached to the nomination form and signed by the nominee shall be satisfactory evidence of the nominee’s acceptance of the nomination. “Nominations shall be submitted to the Zone Secretary not later than 31st August in the year of elections. In the event of nominations exceeding the numbers to be elected, the Zone Secretary shall convene a meeting of the said Clubs for the specific purpose of electing the representatives from the nominations received. Each Club shall be entitled to two representatives with the right to vote at such meeting for which seven days notice shall be given.”

TTCB states the facts

Meanwhile, Persaud added that when the current Deryck Murray-led administration took office in 2005 they were burdened with debts and have been able to turn around the financial fortunes of the board. “What we met when we came into office in November 2005 was a bank overdraft in excess of $200,000. In addition there were debts to be paid out in excess of $200,000. There was also a US$320,000 loan taken to build the Sir Frank Worrell Cricket Development Centre, that needed to be furnished. There was also an unaccounted sum of $669,000 from SPORTT.

“We have been able to take the board into the black and this is described as non-performance by our detractors.” Persaud went on to state that the T&T senior team had not won a Regional Four days tournament for twenty-one-years and under their stewardship this country has been able to enjoy their most successful period in regional cricket. “In the very first year under the new administration Trinidad and Tobago Senior team won the regional four-day competition. The national team went on to score the double that year. From then on our national senior team has become the number one force to be reckoned with in all forms of game in the region.

“The team’s tremendous run has landed them a place in the Champions League in India from October 8th to 23rd 2009. “We have been able to reap this success because of our tremendous development programmes.” Among some of the programmes are the Star Programme - one coach assigned to every secondary school in T&T, teaching basic cricket skills. Easter Bunny cricket coaching programme for children seven to 13 years. Guardian Life under ten primary schools programme, PowerGen Youth Development programme for 13 to 15 years, High Performance Centres for selected under 17 cricketers; eight centres, seven in Trinidad and one in Tobago. And also the Cricket Academy was reintroduced after it was disbanded.