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JUST 24 hours before today’s TT Cricket Board elections, former West Indies spinner Dinanath Ramnarine decided to oppose current TTCB president Azim Bassarath. Ramnarine, a wily leg-spinner during his heyday, said Bassarath must be opposed based on principle and values.

The elections will be held at the TTCB office at the National Cricket Centre in Couva, from 6 pm. Newsday was informed yesterday that no other positions might be contested. Ramnarine and ex-Red Force captain Daren Ganga have been questioning the running of the TTCB – including its constitution – for years. But over the last few days, it seemed Bassarath would go unopposed at the elections.

In an e-mail to the media yesterday, Ramnarine threw his hat into the ring. He said, “During the last few days I have been approached by National League representatives and members of the North, South and South West zonal councils and asked to contest the position of president of the TT Cricket Board.”

The TTCB incumbent currently enjoys 12 outgoing votes according to the constitution.

Ramnarine said the current governance structure will make it difficult to defeat the current president. “After due consideration, I have accepted the invitation to contest the position knowing fully well that the odds of succeeding under the very undemocratic governance structure that we are fighting to change will be difficult, if not impossible.

EXECUTIVE members of the TT Cricket Board (TTCB) Dr Allen Sammy and Manohar Ramsaran said there was no reason for embattled president of the board Azim Bassarath to step aside from today’s elections, despite two audits putting his leadership under tremendous scrutiny. Bassarath, who was first elected president in 2009, will be seeking his fourth term in office. He has not answered calls to his cellphone since last Tuesday when CNC3 reported on a PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) audit.

The audit report suggested former Sport Company of TT director Imran Jan attempted to approve funding for the TTCB beyond his limit. It was alleged that, in return, Bassarath offered Jan a job as assistant coach for the Red Force in October 2017. Both men denied wrongdoing. Jan said his coaching credentials made him a prime candidate for the job.

The PWC audit report became public just six months after a National Gas Company (NGC) audit on the TTCB showed 24 per cent of its sponsorship was not spent according to NGC’s stipulation.

That audit showed that between 2014 and 2016, the TTCB spent $2,983,000 without approval and not in accordance with the memorandum of understanding (MOU).

In­cum­bent pres­i­dent of the T&T Crick­et Board (TTCB) Az­im Bas­sarath will be chal­lenge for the top ex­ec­u­tive po­si­tion to­day by for­mer West In­dies crick­eter Di­nanath Ram­nar­ine, when the board hosts its an­nu­al gen­er­al meet­ing (AGM) at 6 pm at their head­quar­ters in Bal­main, Cou­va.

Bas­sarath, who has been in charge of this coun­try's crick­et since 2009 will be go­ing af­ter this his fourth con­sec­u­tive term in of­fice. Ram­nar­ine has chal­lenged him be­fore and lost.

Af­ter the print me­dia re­port­ed yes­ter­day that Bas­sarath was not go­ing to be chal­lenged, Ram­nar­ine is­sued a press re­lease yes­ter­day in­di­cat­ing that he will be chal­leng­ing for the pres­i­den­cy of the or­gan­i­sa­tion.

He said: "Dur­ing the last few days I have been ap­proached by na­tion­al league rep­re­sen­ta­tives and mem­bers of the north, south, and south­west zon­al coun­cils and asked to con­test the po­si­tion of Pres­i­dent of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Crick­et Board (TTCB).

A to­tal of 47 votes will be up for grabs this evening and a sim­ple ma­jor­i­ty will see ei­ther Bas­sarath or the for­mer SPORTT Com­pa­ny chair­man in charge of lo­cal crick­et for the next three years.

Bassarat starts off at 12

The election was originally scheduled for October 2016, but a six-member National League group comprising Dinanath Ramnarine, Daren Ganga, Samuel Badree, Clint Pamphille, Anil Kamal and the late Camal Basdeo was granted an injunction which stopped the process from taking place. The group challenged the TTCB constitution which they said favoured the incumbent executive as it allowed it 12 outgoing votes for elections.