Harper returned unopposed as GCA President

Feb 02, 2017 Sports, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....ed-as-gca-president/

By Zaheer Mohamed
Former West Indies All-rounder Roger Harper was re-elected unopposed as President of the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) when the body held its Annual General Meeting and Elections on Tuesday night at Muslim Youth Organisation, Woolford Avenue.
The position of first Vice President was contested by Neil Barry and Lavern Fraser, but Barry had little hiccups, winning by 30 votes to six. Azad Ibrahim easily retained his post as 2nd Vice President with a 29-8 victory over Fraser.
Debra McNicholl was unanimously elected Secretary, while Paul Castello went unchallenged for the post of Assistant Secretary. Dennis Wilson will serve as Treasurer and Imran Ally Assistant Treasurer; both were unopposed.
Graeme Alli was unchallenged for the post of Marketing Manager, while Colin Alfred returned unopposed as the Public Relations Officer. Kenroy Joseph and Shawn Massiah contested for the position of Competition Committee Chairman, but Massiah won 27-10. PKF Barcellos Narine and Company remained as the auditor.
Addressing the media after the election, Harper who played 25 test matches and 105 ODIs thanked the clubs for their confidence and urged his executive to work together for the development of the game. “We look forward to serving the members with the aim to build on the work we have done over the years. We will continue to implement development programmes and ensure that our members have competitions at all levels,” he added.
He pointed out that the GCA will aim to give the players especially the youths much opportunity to showcase their talent with the intention of moving on to greater heights. “If we can help the players to develop their skills and enhance their ability then we think that we will be assisting to develop cricket in Guyana and the Region,” he posited.
The availability of grounds is one of the problems that continue to plague the GCA, but Harper indicated that there have been some improvement is this area; however, his committee intends to meet with some of the clubs on the way forward. “The availability of grounds is still an issue, we intend to meet with the some of these clubs whose grounds are not available as often as it should especially for first division games, and work out some arrangement where they can be made available more often,” he explained.
Harper stated that they will work to garner more sponsorship for the youth tournaments and hope they can run off more competitions during the school vacations.
The respective committees of the GCA will be named shortly.