BlackFacts Details

TTCB league title in limbo as Powergen goes to court - Trinidad and Tobago Newsday

The TT Cricket Board has agreed that its appeals committee will not to take any steps to consider the complaint of Powergen Penal Sports Club which, ultimately, will determine the Premier One Division champion.

The TTCB's undertaking was given in response to an application for an injunction filed by the southern club.

The undertaking is that the board's national appeals committee will not hear or determine the club's complaint until the matter is fully ventilated in court.

The sports club is challenging the TTCB's appeals and disciplinary committees' jurisdiction to adjudicate its complaint. They insist that their protest can only be determined by the TTCB's executive.

That hearing was expected to take place on Wednesday at 7 pm.

However, Justice Karen Reid approved the undertaking given by the TTCB and adjourned the matter to the docketed judge, Justice Avason Quinlan-Williams, who will set further directions for the progress of the injunction application and the one for judicial review.

The club is represented by attorneys Gerald Ramdeen, Dayadai Harripaul, Umesh Maharaj, and Nerisa Bala, while Navindra Ramnanan is representing the TTCB.

The eight-team, two-day, round-robin premier league competition concluded on March 26, with Queen's Park finishing on top with 143 points, 19 more than second-placed Powergen, however, the South-based team protested the outcome of its match against Victoria United Sports Club.

In support of the applications, chairman of the TTCB's south zone and manager of the club, Chaitram Ramjitsingh, said on affidavit, the club - the defending champions of the league, having won in 2019 - was listed to play Victoria United in the second-round fixtures on February 11 and 12.

However, he said the two-day match was reduced to one because of problems with the pitch, and Powergen lodged a complaint with the TTCB's secretary.

Ramjitsingh said on March 17, the club was told that its complaint was determined by the national disciplinary committee and dismissed.

Five days later, it appealed and was told by the national appeals committee that the complaint was sent back to the disciplinary committee.

However, the club maintained the disciplinary committee had no jurisdiction to hear its complaint and sought to adopt a procedure that Powergen says was in violation of the rules of natural justice. That hearing was adjourned without a decision being made.

However, Powergen says on April 4, it was told that the TTCB's executive reviewed and decided the procedure for 'protest matters,' - that complaints from the disciplinary committee go to the appeals committee then the supreme appellate committee - and set a hearing for the next day. The appeals committee, the application contends, determined it had the jurisdiction to hear the complaint and set the hearing for April 12 via Zoom video conferencing.

The club maintains the appeals committee's powers are specifically set out in the TTCB's constitution and only had appellate powers.

It says those powers were limited to appeals