In response, Mr Gomez, who is also a leading international cricket officer himself, said he was not in town during the AGM – attending a meeting in South Africa – but said even if he were in town, he would still not have attended the AGM. ”The cricket association would never have attended that AGM because as far as we are concerned, the GNOC has been sidelined by the Ministry of Youths and Sports and that is what we too are doing. We cannot work with people who are not recognised by the national regulatory body of the country, the sports council and the ministry,” he said.
Asked if he was not impressed by the fact that the GNOC has just obtained a grant of US$4.8 million dalasi for Gambian sports, moved towards unifying all its family and facilitating an elite training course for football coaches, Gomez said: ”I am even surprised by those developments because a body that is supposed to have been sidelined and not recognised is not supposed to function like a legitimate body. In any case, I am still not recognising them. We oppose on the bases of principles not just mere noise; but concrete principles that were violated in the GNOC procedures and that is the position we maintain,” he concluded.
Recently, the GNOC held an AGM where for the first time, national associations that opposed the GNOC, dissatisfied with the recent elections, announced they had ended their quarrels and were ready to work with the GNOC. This is despite the fact that the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the National Sports Council are still keeping the GNOC at arm’s length insisting that they must conform to the laws of the land governing sports associations and conduct their affairs according to their own laws.
The GNOC leadership had accused the Ministry of meddling in its affairs in favour of the opposition, accusationswhich MOYS flatly deny.
By Lamin Cham
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