Mo­men­tum is build­ing for the re­turn of the Az­im Bas­sarath slate of can­di­dates to re­main at the helm of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Crick­et Board (TTCB).

Last week, short­ly af­ter the elec­tion date of Sat­ur­day 30th, Oc­to­ber 2021 was an­nounced, both the South East Zone and the Cen­tral Zone pledged their sup­port for the in­cum­bents.

And over the week­end, the Bas­sarath slate got a big boost with the ring­ing en­dorse­ment of the South Zone and the East Zone. Chair­man of the South Zone, Chaitram Ramjits­ingh said that he has no hes­i­ta­tion in back­ing Bas­sarath as those chal­leng­ing the present ad­min­is­tra­tion are not unit­ed.

“Our Zon­al Coun­cil took a de­ci­sion to vote for the Bas­sarath slate as those op­pos­ing the in­cum­bent of­fi­cials are dis­or­ga­nized and do not of­fer any plan to take crick­et for­ward.

While no op­po­si­tion has been an­nounced to chal­lenge Bas­sarath to date, his slate will be seek­ing to 24 of the 46 del­e­gates eli­ga­ble to vote from sev­en zones and af­fil­i­ates (North East, East, North, Cen­tral, South, South East, South West, To­ba­go, Um­pires, Women, Pri­ma­ry and Sec­ondary schools)

Ac­cord­ing to the TTCB re­lease on Mon­day, Ramjits­ingh’s back­ing was a wel­come boost for the slate of can­di­dates who are ex­pect­ed to jump­start some of the na­tion­al crick­et pro­grammes which have been stymied for the past 18 months be­cause of the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic. “The de­ci­sion was made by the South Zon­al Coun­cil since we be­lieve that we need the sta­bil­i­ty and the struc­ture re­quired post-pan­dem­ic if crick­et is to re­cov­er from the Covid-19 set­back,” said Ramjits­ingh.

The sup­port of the South Zone is es­pe­cial­ly sig­nif­i­cant as it has tra­di­tion­al­ly toed an in­de­pen­dent line, and its al­le­giance al­most en­sures that the Bas­sarath slate will be favoured to as­sume a four-year term in ac­cor­dance with one of the new amend­ments to the TTCB Con­sti­tu­tion.

Ramjits­ingh said that as pres­i­dent of Pow­er­Gen Sports Club, one of the lead­ing Pre­mier Di­vi­sion clubs, he is look­ing for­ward to work­ing with the Bas­sarath slate to help move the lo­cal game for­ward.

He praised the TTCB ex­ec­u­tive for the mea­sures that they took dur­ing the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic and yet were suc­cess­ful in keep­ing sev­er­al pro­grammes in­tact es­pe­cial­ly for the na­tion­al se­nior team, and the Un­der-19s.

Ramjits­ingh said that it was al­so very note­wor­thy and sig­nalled the in­tent of the Bas­sarath slate that term lim­its for the TTCB pres­i­dent were placed in the con­sti­tu­tion for the first time.

And on the back of the glow­ing en­dorse­ment of the South Zone, chair­man of the East Zon­al Coun­cil Joseph Sam Phillip said that his of­fi­cials had no hes­i­ta­tion in back­ing Bas­sarath.

“We were of one opin­ion that the Bas­sarath ad­min­is­tra­tion had led us through the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic in a re­spon­si­ble way that kept the game on an even keel de­spite the great chal­lenges,” Phillip said.

He said that the TTCB com­mit­ment to trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty is ev­i­denced by their in­sis­tence that Zon­al Coun­cils ful­fil the re­quire­ment to reg­is­ter with the Min­istry of the At­tor­ney-Gen­er­al and Le­gal Af­fairs in com­pli­ance with the Fi­nan­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit.

“Un­der the present TTCB, every ef­fort is be­ing made to make each Zon­al Coun­cil ac­count­able in a way that is be­yond re­proach in re­gard to its fi­nan­cial af­fairs,” said Phillip.

He al­so made ref­er­ence to the fact that of all the Na­tion­al Sports Or­ga­ni­za­tions, on­ly the TTCB was found to be 100 per cent in com­pli­ance with its re­ports and ad­her­ence to the strict rules of the Sports Com­pa­ny.

Mean­while, nom­i­na­tion forms were made avail­able for col­lec­tion on­ly at the TTCB's Ad­min­is­tra­tive Of­fice, Bal­main, Cou­va from yes­ter­day.

Each Nom­i­na­tion Form will re­quire the sig­na­ture of two (2) Pro­posers, who must be le­git­i­mate mem­bers of the Board, and as such must be col­lect­ed pri­or to the Nom­i­na­tion Days.

Be re­mind­ed that the nom­i­na­tion days are Oc­to­ber 14th and 15th, 2021. Nom­i­na­tion forms must be sub­mit­ted on the above-men­tioned days to mem­ber/s of the Elec­tions Com­mit­tee on­ly at the Al­loy Lequay Ad­min­is­tra­tion Cen­tre (down­stairs). No oth­er per­son is au­tho­rized to col­lect Nom­i­na­tion Forms on be­half of the Com­mit­tee.

Each can­di­date can sub­mit a Nom­i­na­tion Form for on­ly one po­si­tion.

Mem­bers vot­ing on the day will be re­quired to sub­mit via email/in-per­son to the TTCB Ad­min­is­tra­tive Of­fice, one form of pic­ture ID (Na­tion­al Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion Card, Dri­ver's Per­mit, Pass­port) no lat­er than Fri­day 22nd Oc­to­ber 2021, which will be placed in a binder to ver­i­fy your iden­ti­ty on Elec­tion Day. You will be re­quired to walk with the same form of ID sub­mit­ted (on the day) in or­der to vote.