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NEWLY re-elected president of the TT Cricket Board (TTCB) Azim Bassarath is appealing for past and new sponsors to get on board and save TT cricket. Bassarath, who beat challenger Dinanath Ramnarine for the top cricket post on Wednesday, made the appeal after winning his fourth term in office.

Speaking at the National Cricket Centre in Couva, the local cricket boss said, "Corporate sponsors and the business community, who are friends of the game, must return and make their contributions to national development through the investment in our youth cricketers. Each one of us must act responsibly and provide the testimony that is required for the success of the campaign to rescue this sport. It has suffered greatly as a victim of collateral damage of the economic decline for the past few years."

Bassarath said gaining sponsorship has been challenging and allegations of misuse of funds over the last six months may have tarnished the board.

TTCB boss looks to revive the sport

New­ly elect­ed pres­i­dent of the T&T Crick­et Board (TTCB), Az­im Bas­sarath in his vic­to­ry speech af­ter for a fourth suc­ces­sive term said he will look at con­sti­tu­tion­al re­form and al­so will open his hands to those op­pose to him, in the in­ter­est of de­vel­op­ing the sport which has tak­en a lash over the last cou­ple of years.

Bas­sarath de­feat­ed for­mer West In­dies leg-spin­ner Di­nanath Ram­nar­ine 31-13 at the board's elec­tion on Tues­day night in Cou­va.

Bas­sarath said: "Dur­ing my play­ing days a leg-spin­ner nev­er got me out and it didn't hap­pen even to­day." In an ob­vi­ous ref­er­ence to Ram­nar­ine, Bas­sarath pro­voked laugh­ter when he added: "By the time to leg-spin­ners came on the fast bowlers would have al­ready cleaned me up."

On a se­ri­ous note though he said that dur­ing the next pe­ri­od (three-years) he will have a look at the con­sti­tu­tion: "We will con­tin­ue to look at the board's con­sti­tu­tion as we move for­ward be­cause we want to have a struc­ture in place that leads to greater sta­bil­i­ty and de­vel­op­ment."

Ram­nar­ine, a res­i­dent of Cas­cade, said he al­so got a vic­to­ry de­spite los­ing the pres­i­den­cy: "I thought it was a vic­to­ry for us be­cause los­ing the pres­i­den­cy bat­tle is just one small thing. That is just one part of the big pic­ture. Dur­ing this process, we were able to bring to the fore the poor gov­er­nance struc­ture of the TTCB and we are able to bring to the pub­lic do­main, the is­sues that have re­al­ly been hurt­ing the de­vel­op­ment of crick­et in this coun­try."

Asked if he was pleased with the elec­tion process, Ram­nar­ine said: "I was not be­cause there are many is­sues that we ob­ject­ed to. Imag­ine East Zone Coun­cil came here to vote but they have not held an elec­tion in the Zone for two and a half years. When you look at the board's con­sti­tu­tion they were not sup­posed to vote on the night.

"When you have a sit­u­a­tion with all the Af­fil­i­ates, as they have not been meet­ing the re­quire­ments to con­tin­ue as af­fil­i­ates but they were all here to vote."

For­mer West In­dies Play­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (WIPA) pres­i­dent said he will con­tin­ue the fight for good gov­er­nance. "Peo­ple must un­der­stand that this is not about pow­er but is all about look­ing to put things right. Look, I came from noth­ing and crick­et has giv­en me every­thing. I don't need any­thing from crick­et again but I feel it is my du­ty to pro­tect the sport that has giv­en me so much."

New­ly elect­ed pres­i­dent of the T&T Crick­et Board (TTCB), Az­im Bas­sarath