Acceptance Speech from Azim Bassarath, newly elected TTCB President
November 1, 2009

Newly elected officers for the new term 2009-2011,
Newly elected executive members for the new term 2009-2011,
Fellow members of the board.

Today we survived the onslaught and threat to our constitution and the democratic process has spoken loud and clear. The voice of the representatives of cricket has given me a mandate to lead a new team of experienced and dedicated administrators for the next two years. I thank you for the confidence you have shown in me.

My first duty as president must be to extend sincere congratulations to the T & T National Senior Cricket Team on their outstanding performance during the Champion League Tournament in India and to also wish them well in defending the President’s Cup in Guyana. 

We challenged and were victorious in our bid to administer the affairs of the Cricket Board, but earlier this month and contrary to all reports there was also a challenge to the captaincy of our national senior team. Had it not been for us, the Movement for Change we might well have seen a new captain (and perhaps even a different result).  I want to say here and now that not only was the captaincy offered to one player but when that failed a second player was also offered the arm band. It is to the credit and ability of Darren that he has proven his silent critics VERY wrong, in fact the praises are overwhelming. Luckily for public Trinidad & Tobago the unity of the team remained strong and resolute behind Darren Ganga and today the whole nation can be proud of this country’s achievements on the world stage.

Local matters

Constitutional matters – we have seen in recent months attempted amendments to the constitution. Some of these have been fresh and were welcomed and some caused me great concern. We must continue the work started and address among others simple matters of ‘make-up clubs’ not having played in zonal competitions being able to vote. We will sit down with Tobago and hammer out a constitutional frame work that would be fair to Tobago and yet not be unfair to the existing zones in Trinidad. We must address in an open and forth right way the true integration of women’s cricket in keeping with the ICC’s mandate for integration. The blatant disregard by the last administration for a special general meeting suggest to me that this is a suitable example that calls for inclusion of disciplinary clauses for administrators who openly and wilfully flout our constitution. One hilarious suggestion is that we hold an enquiry and to declare these administrators  persona non grata!  Fellow Members, the election result is justifiably timely and such a drastic option will remain just one’s hilarious suggestion.

On a more realistic situation, I ask you today to reflect for a moment on the ever troubling question on separating the office of CEO from that of President or General Secretary.  We now have a situation where the CEO who was the General Secretary has lived and promoted the goals and vision of one side but by the very result of the election has remained in office as an administrator. His vision and plans are not in sync with ours; he does not read from the same manual, he does not preach our gospel! Can he really fulfil our goals as we have so elegantly outlined in our Blue print for Excellence? Yet we are saddled with his continuance in office. This is also good reason for re-visiting the constitution. Could the answer be in such circumstances that his contract should not extend pass the expiry of the executive term. Or does the answer lie in disqualifying the CEO from also being an officer of the executive and vice versa? 

These are just some of the thorny issues that immediately come to mind but the constitution is always a work in progress and the run up to these elections has been a great eye opener.

Tobago – besides the constitutional concern mentioned above, I want to assure my very GOOD friends from Tobago that during the past year I have listened intensely to the concerns raised at both the executive level and at the quarterly meetings of the board. Tobago must not be looked at as a remote village or a five minute boat ride past Toco. Tobago has its difficulties in many ways and I invite Messers Trim and Moses to sit with me and workout that frame work to ensure the relationship started will continue.

Women’s Cricket – I was appalled in August, when our women’s National cricket team won the WICB tournament in Guyana, and yet to date I have not seen (except now hidden in the Secretary’s report) or have I heard our board extend any congratulatory greeting. Also noticeable was that neither the CEO nor the President thought it fit to be at the airport to greet them on their return. Is the Women’s Cricket Board not an affiliate and part of this board?

To the Women’s Cricket Board – I ask you to forgive this grave omission and to accept from ALL members here today, the Board’s congratulations on your recent success at regional level.

This clearly shows how far off the radar screen the last administration had the women’s association and to show our commitment to the Women’s Cricket Board we signed a MOU that should the Movement for Change win, our agenda and commitment would have been crystal clear. Today that contract with the WCA has been formally bound.

Re-alignment of relations with SSCC – the success of the current national senior team really began ten-twenty years ago when all of the current players began their grounding in the primary and secondary school systems. Although I was not at the national awards function held at President’s House, I understand the president of the TTOC gave historic and scientific reasoning for the need to cultivate the youngsters from a very early age. Having been chairman of the South East Zone for many years I don’t need to be told on the value of our development programmes which have been proclaimed by eminent minds from Jamaica to Guyana. We have on the crust of breaking thru the likes of young Katwaroo, the Carriah’s  the Ottley’s to name a few and we must continue to mould these youngsters so that when the Gangas, Bharath’s  and Bravos are away on the International stage  we would have an able cadre of experienced players to fill in. To this end, I want to tell Wally that we will hold discussions very soon to review, plan, re-align the Star Programme- the High performance centres, and the academy.

Sponsors – there is the old adage “you know what you have but you don’t know what you will get” -in 2005, there were equal concerns about the damage that elections have on our sponsors. This year was no different and future elections will be no different. In fact after the 2005 elections we saw increased sponsorship and greater inflows to our coffers.  The reality though is that the world is in an economic recession and today many sponsors are mindful of their level of support. We have today in our audience one of our major sponsors, who I am sure is not just a PARTY supporter but a SPORT supporter.    I am confident that ALL our sponsors will continue to support CRICKET Trinidad & Tobago and we look forward to having all our sponsors on board, as we work together to take T & T and W.I cricket to greater heights.  

WI matters

Mending fences with WICB – from all the media reports, it is plainly obvious that the last administration’s boycott from the Annual General Meeting of the WICB has back fired! This has not only proven to be a very costly miscalculation but it has fuelled the fire on whether our board did have motives to go on our own.

The immediate past president has spent the better of part of every interview since then trying to correct this misinterpretation. This administration’s position is that we are an integral part of West Indies Cricket and so we shall stay. Do I need to repeat that, we are part of West Indies Cricket and So We Shall Stay!

I look forward at the earliest opportunity to meeting the Honourable Julian Hunte and offering our boards’ commitment and assistance to the rebuilding of West Indies Cricket.

To our immediate past president, history will recognise you for your leadership over the years 2005-2009, an era in which the Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board saw many successes from the spoils of the regional level to those of the Stanford win-fall and to the glory of my mother land, India. You were “just a school boy picked to play in someone else’s TEST match” and before you suffered any further injury, we have come only to put you on the reserve bench- not out of the game. No election will ever take away from you your international career or your reputation and my administration offers you the olive branch.

As we move now into office, we must use every available human resource to promote and develop our cricket. We must re-engineer and open the Sir Frank Worrell Development Centre to every single young star. We must re- integrate the clubs, the zones, the umpires, the primary and secondary Schools and last but by no means least, women cricket in a meaningful way into the cricket board. 

We are one people of a lovely rainbow country and we must strive to work together. We must not follow the bitterness and animosity that typifies national politics, that is, practice of MY party and YOUR party. Cricket has been a major unifying force of our Caribbean people and so too, should it be for the people of T & T.

Ladies & Gentlemen – I thank you the voters for showing your confidence in my team and I ask the almighty god to give me the grace and humility to lead this cricketing fraternity for the next two years.

With this, I humbly accept the office of President of the Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board and to uphold and protect our constitution.   I thank you.