Singh firm on taking up WICB top post
Guyana Chronicle
July 10, 2003
PRESIDENT of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), Chetram Singh yesterday declared that in no way was his mind changed about running for the presidency of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).
The Barbados Nation carried a story that due to the fact that Singh is the proprietor of the Goodwood Racing Service, he would not be able to represent the (WICB) at International Cricket Council (ICC) meetings, if elected president.
Singh stated that if elected as president of the WICB he would send a representative to the ICC. He pointed out that the ICC has one official meeting every year, while for the other 364 days of the year he would still have to deal with West Indies cricket issues.
According to Singh, a number of executives of the West Indies Cricket Board spoke to him early yesterday morning and stated that having an ambassador represent the WICB at the meeting was not a big issue.
President of the Barbados Cricket Association Stephen Alleyne recently came back from an ICC meeting, where he represented the WICB, so having a representive will not be something new.
With a bit of emotion Singh stated that his business has been in operation since 1982, and to date he employs some fifty persons. Persons who bet at his establishment do so on horses and some times dogs not cricket.
“It’s an honest living,” Singh said.
With reference to the statement made by an unidentified source close to Willie Rodriguez in the Trinidad Guardian, the 53-year old Singh announced that if this is true, it is just a sour grape notion by the president of the Queen’s Park Cricket Club (QPCC).
The GCB President, however, had praises for the QPCC president, recalling the point in Rodriquez’s career when he represented both the West Indies cricket team and the West Indies football team.
Singh was expected to win the WICB presidency, even before Rodriquez removed himself from the race.
From the 14 votes Singh was expected to receive ten - one each from out going president Wes Hall and incumbent Vice-president Val Banks who is seeking re-election, two each from Guyana, Leeward Islands, Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados.
The two votes each from Jamaica and the Windward Islands were expected to go to Rodriquez.