PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The head of Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board Azim Bassarath believes the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) and Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) have more than enough time to look at the audited financial statements sent by West Indies Cricket. (CWI), leaving them with no excuse not to attend last Sunday’s AGM.
Furthermore, Bassarath believes the decision of both boards to snub the virtual AGM and force it to be deferred until April 11 is a “mistake” and led to strengthening support for incumbents, president Ricky Skerritt and vice president Dr Kishore Shallow.
The veterans administration said that while CWI had sent the money late, management had given “reasonable excuses” for doing so.
After receiving email from the territorial boards containing the financial issues just before noon last Friday, Bassarath believes there is still plenty of time to review them.
“The board management had put forward a reason, an excuse for not presenting the financial issues on time,” said Bassarath.
“I think the Barbados Cricket Association waived the notice as requested by the management team and then they withdrew.
“The other territorial boards with the exception of the Guyana Cricket Board did not give up so I don’t think that should be any excuse and a big reason for not attending the meeting.”
He continued: “How long do you really take to look at a financial statement? If you take six hours, you got the statement about 48 to 60 hours before the meeting, and if you took six hours to look at the document, it was plenty of time.
“And there were reasonable excuses why the financial report was not submitted on time so I don’t think it should be an excuse why the meeting couldn’t go on and why they didn’t attend the meeting.”
In statements following the adjournment of the meeting, the APB and GCB expressed concern about the lateness of the audited financial statements and the limited time for review.
“Despite receiving the documents at the above time, it was clear that there was not enough time before the scheduled AGM to properly analyze the Audited Financial Statements,” said the BCA, adding that they had “not attempted to frustrate the process in any way ”by not attending the AGM.
The GCB, which Anand Sanasie was about to challenge Skerritt in the presidential election at the AGM, said they were “not prepared to address the irresponsible and integral management of CWI funding” by tolerating the untimely delivery of the audited funds.
Bassarath, however, said he believes the two boards will look back on their actions with some remorse.
“If you look at social media, if you look at what’s in the public domain, I think it has confirmed tremendous support for Mr Skerritt and Dr Shallow,” he told SportsMax, Jamaica’s television sports cable channel.
“I now feel that the Guyana Cricket Board and Barbados Cricket Association will have realized that they had made a mistake by not attending the meeting.”
Since their decision to skip Sunday’s meeting, the GCB and BCA have been harshly criticized by joint territorial boards.
The Jamaican Cricket Association said the latest development was a “dark moment” that had exacerbated the split in West Indies cricket.
“For me this is a dark moment in West Indies cricket. When you are more concerned about yourself and your position than West Indies cricket, it doesn’t say much for our game, ”said JCA president Billy Heaven.
“The political divide in West Indies cricket has gone to a record low. This is not the first [time] that CWI requested a waiver and obtained a waiver. ”
The Wind Islands Cricket Board, led by Shallow, said there was “no good reason for the way confusion and mistrust have been listed on our highly respected and honorary governing body.”
And the Leeward Islands Cricket Board also argued that the actions of the BCA and GCB had brought CWI into disrepute.