War of words prior to TTCB elections

Bassarath is hoping to defeat Ramnarine and earn re-election as president of the TTCB for a third consecutive term at the Annual General Meeting this Saturday.

Ramnarine, a former president of the West Indies Players Association, has been advocating for a change in the TTCB constitution to remove the 12 outgoing votes enjoyed by the Executive to no avail. Ramnarine invited Bassarath to a public symposium last Sunday involving club members and key stakeholders in cricket at the Chaguanas Borough Corporation to discuss several issues surrounding the election and local cricket.

Bassarath, who chose not to attend the symposium, took the opportunity via an email reply to attack Ramnarine’s public outbursts concerning the TTCB’s running of local cricket.

At the symposium, Ganga fought back, stating the TTCB is hiding behind press releases and Bassarath failed to attend the symposium because he is afraid of public scrutiny.

On October 12, Ramnarine wrote an email to Bassarath inviting him to the symposium. The email stated, “you are invited, in your capacity of president of the TTCB, to a symposium on the present state of cricket in TT to be held at 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm on Sunday October 16, 2016 at the Chaguanas Borough Corporation.

The seminar is under the auspices of the duly elected National League Reps of the TTCB which has invited all interested persons, clubs and key stakeholders to attend and participate in the discussions and recommendations that will inevitably emerge from the event.” Bassarath responded to Ramnarine on October 14 saying, “your invitation to the proposed symposium carded for October 16 at the Chaguanas Borough Corporation Hall is noted. What is also noted is your repeated public indiscretions to malign the TT Cricket Board, an organisation of which you are a bonafide member and of which you are unsuccessfully attempting for a second time, to become president.” Bassarath continued, “your public ranting and continuous misconduct as a member of the organisation which is recognised by the Minister of Sports as the best run National Sporting Organisation in TT will no longer be tolerated.” Bassarath reminded ‘Dinas’ that the Board on October 31, 2015 “overwhelmingly rejected” a motion for constitutional change which was brought by him. He also lashed out the ex-Windies spinner for not “observing collective responsibility.” Speaking at the symposium on Sunday, Ganga said, “he (Bassarath) has not accepted the (symposium) invitation and that in itself shows that he can’t stand scrutiny to the stakeholders in cricket, open scrutiny.” Ganga continued, “I think in a previous communication and a previous interview both myself and Dinanath had, we spoke about the members of the board, the executive members of the board and the president himself articulating what their plans are. We have also asked the media to stop the idea of the board hiding behind press releases.

We want to hear from those persons who have the power of decision making in TT’s cricket, what their vision is as it relates to cricket.

We have issues and we have had issues, we have articulated a lot of them over the last couple years that they have not addressed.”