SPORTS DESK

gm­sports@guardian.co.tt

For­mer West In­dies and T&T play­er Di­nanath Ram­nar­ine was un­suc­cess­ful in his ef­forts to have his choice of rep­re­sen­ta­tives elect­ed as the Pre­mier League Di­vi­sion Clubs I and II rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the next four-year term of the T&T Crick­et Board.

Dur­ing yes­ter­day’s poll at the Al­loy Lequay Ad­min­is­tra­tion Cen­tre of the Na­tion­al Crick­et Cen­tre in Bal­main, Cou­va, the rep­re­sen­ta­tives were pre­sent­ed with 12 nom­i­nees—Adri­an Ali, Anil Ka­mal, Avidesh Sama­roo, Eu­gene An­toine, Frank Sim­mons, Kala­parsad Sanise, Ra­jin­dra Poorai, Richard Ramkissoon, Ricky Per­sad, Sean Siloch, Se­bas­t­ian Ed­wards and Vish­nauth Ma­haraj. The 20 rep­re­sen­ta­tives elect­ed Sanise (32 votes) Cos­mos; Sim­mons (29) De­fence Force; Poorai (29) Marchin Pa­tri­ots; Ramkissoon (28) Cen­tral Sports; Ali (28) Marchin Pa­tri­ots; and Ed­wards (27) Mer­ry­boys.

Ka­mal (Cal­drac Sports Club 14 votes), Sama­roo (En­deav­our - 12), An­toine (nom­i­nat­ed by Cal­drac Sports Club -10), Per­sad (Comets - 8), Siloch (Clarke Road - 12) and Ma­haraj (York­shire - 10) who were backed by Ram­nar­ine were un­suc­cess­ful.

How­ev­er, 23 clubs par­tic­i­pat­ed in the 2022 sea­son, but be­cause Queen’s Park Crick­et Club (QPCC) has three teams com­pet­ing in the na­tion­al league the club was on­ly al­lowed two votes in the elec­tion. QPCC Un­der-19 team wasn’t al­lowed to vote be­cause it is a de­vel­op­men­tal team for re­gion­al com­pe­ti­tion.

Ram­nar­ine, a for­mer pres­i­dent of the West In­dies Play­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (WIPA), has been cam­paign­ing for sev­er­al years in his at­tempt to lead the TTCB.

Re­spond­ing to the re­sults, pres­i­dent of the TTCB Az­im Bas­sarath, who en­dorsed the even­tu­al vic­tors, said the group of win­ners was the best peo­ple to rep­re­sent the Pre­mier League clubs go­ing for­ward.

He said most have had valu­able ex­pe­ri­ence at the top lev­el of crick­et league ad­min­is­tra­tion which was ev­i­denced by the suc­cess­ful re­sults of the 2022 sea­son af­ter two years when Covid-19 reg­u­la­tions pre­vent­ed any lo­cal crick­et.

“I want to con­grat­u­late all the win­ners in whom the clubs have placed their ut­most con­fi­dence and I am cer­tain they will con­tin­ue to do a very good job in the com­ing sea­sons as crick­et gets in­to high gear,” said Bas­sarath.

He al­so com­mend­ed the Elec­tions Com­mit­tee which he said con­duct­ed the elec­tions in their usu­al pro­fes­sion­al and ef­fi­cient man­ner which was above re­proach.

Bass­rath al­so high­light­ed the in­ter­est shown by the Pre­mier League Clubs which all sent rep­re­sen­ta­tives to vote say­ing that it re­flect­ed the high lev­el of stake­hold­er par­tic­i­pa­tion which is ad­mirable.