WICB to meet to resolve Guyana impasse

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) will hold a teleconference on Saturday in an effort to resolve the impasse between the board, the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) and the Guyanese government. Earlier this month, the GCB was locked out of its premises by the Guyana government, which appointed an Interim Management Committee (IMC) headed by Clive Lloyd to govern the sport in the country.

Lloyd is also a non-member director of the WICB; last week, Anand Senasie, the secretary of the GCB which has been replaced by the IMC, wrote to the WICB president Julian Hunte, asking him to remove Lloyd from his role as non-member director.

The WICB refused to recognise the IMC, and the impasse, it was feared, would prevent Guyana from competing in the Caribbean T20, though that didn't happen. But the board is set to meet ahead of the Regional Four Day Competition, the first-class tournament starting on February 3.

"The WICB is making every effort to find a solution. On Saturday we will be holding a teleconference to discuss it as well as an issue with Jamaica. Both (the GCB and IMC) have been at each other and clearly that can't continue. The players' business must come first," WICB director Dr Allen Sammy told Newsday.

The IMC has named a provisional 30-man squad, with Ramnaresh Sarwan as captain, for the first-class competition, and the WICB said efforts should be made to ensure the players are not distracted by the ongoing problem. "What is most important is that players must be given an opportunity to play for their country and without any burden on their mind. They are playing to win for Guyana and to get on the West Indies team but the right environment must be there for that to happen," Sammy said.

The current standoff between the Guyana government - represented by sports minister Frank Anthony - and the GCB, and by extension the WICB, dates back to the disputed Guyana board elections in July 2011.