Guyana board president quits after home is raided

The president of the Guyana Cricket Board, Ramsay Ali, has resigned after police and court officials raided his home, and the homes of other board officials. The raids were the latest development in an ongoing impasse between the GCB and the Guyana government.

Ali said the court officials seized financial documents and other papers from his office and home, and from the homes of board secretary Anand Senasie, former president Chetram Singh, and another trustee, Lionel Jaikarran.

Guyana's assistant police commissioner Seelall Persaud confirmed the raids had occurred on Monday, February 27. "Police were there only to ensure peace was kept," he told AP.

The conflict between the GCB and the Guyana government began when the Guyanese government dissolved the GCB due to a dispute over its July 2011 elections. The elections, in which Ali became president, were boycotted by some of the board's constituent members, one of which, the Berbice Cricket Board, took the GCB to court, claiming the new administration was not properly established. The Chief Justice recommended that "there may be immediate need for the minister responsible for sports to impose his executive will in the national interest."

Following that ruling, Guyanese sports minister Dr Frank Anthony appointed an Interim Management Committee, headed by ex-West Indies captain Clive Lloyd, to run cricket in Guyana. The WICB, however, refused to acknowledge the IMC, in keeping with the ICC's stance against government intervention in cricket administration, and said the only authority it would recognise was the GCB. The impasse has led to several problems, including Guyana nearly missing the Caribbean T20, the shifting of a West Indies-Australia Test from Providence to Dominica and the resignation of Lloyd as a non-member director of the WICB.

The officials of the GCB have had to endure being locked out of their offices, in January this year, and having now had their homes invaded, the president has decided to resign.