Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board chief Azim Bassarath believes both the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) and Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) had more than enough time to peruse the audited financial statements sent by Cricket West Indies (CWI), leaving them with no excuse not to attend last Sunday’s annual general meeting (AGM).
Further, Bassarath believes the decision by both boards to snub the virtual AGM and force its postponement until April 11 was “a mistake” and had resulted in a strengthening of support for incumbent President Ricky Skerritt, and Vice-President Dr Kishore Shallow.
The veteran administration said while CWI had sent out the financials late, the management had given “reasonable excuses” for doing so. And after territorial boards received the e-mail containing the financials just before midday last Friday, Bassarath believes there was sufficient time to have reviewed them.
“The management of the board had submitted a reason, an excuse for not submitting the financials on time,” Bassarath said.
“I think the Barbados Cricket Association did waive the notice as was asked for by the management team and then they withdrew.
“The other territorial boards, with the exception of the Guyana Cricket Board, did not waive so I don’t think that should really be any major excuse and reason for not attending the meeting.”
He continued: “How long will you take to really peruse a financial statement? If you take six hours, you got the statement about 48 to 60 hours before the meeting, and if you take six hours to peruse the document, it was enough time.
