A Broken Promise
Dear Editor,
At the commencement of the 2007 Ed Ahmad Caribbean Cup competition, the managing committee thoroughly discussed and decided that a combined team involving the best cricketers in the competition would travel to the Caribbean to play a series of games against one of the countries. I was a witness to that discussion and up to the end of the tournament that was my understanding.

There are many volunteers who give of their time, energy and money, and who made sacrifices so that a full complement of teams would be committed to the tournament and that it would be successful. Yes, the sponsorship was derived from the Guyana community, but the overwhelming majority of the participants and administrators are not Guyanese. Trevor Hall, Wesley King, Leroy Peters, Kyron Mitchell, Glen Phillip, Godfrey Mitchell, Joseph Allen, Calvin Heliger, Lloyd Patrick,Lloyd Dixon, Paul Deo and others are all non Guyanese who laid and maintained the foundation for success. I know that many of them would have paid their expenses to travel with a New York team.

It is indeed a slap in the face to those persons to now hear that the champion team would be touring Guyana. The committee was never contacted, neither were their opinions solicited. It is a fact that some of the Guyanese players who participated in the Ed Ahmad Cup will be representing their home country. Therefore, Guyana New York will be using players who did not even participate in the competition.

The last team from the Ed Ahmad Cup to travel from New York was a combined team which won the Los Angeles open. Krish (Prashad) or I could have taken the trophy home. Instead, we viewed it as a rare symbol of Caribbean unity and unselfishness, took it to Mr. Ed Ahmad's office and presented it to him.

The "Bandwagon" phenoma is no stranger to New York sports. This has occurred time and time again. However, we should never be $1 wise and $10,000 foolish.

Clifford Hinds