BY PATIENCE LEPHOGOLE
Former Botswana Cricket Association (BCA) chief executive officer (CEO), Girish Ramakrishna, has been re-elected as the development officer in the Africa Cricket Association (ACA).
The former BCA CEO, who was the incumbent to the office was re-elected during the ACA Annual General Meeting (AGM) which took place last week in Nairobi, Kenya.
Speaking to the Sunday Standard Sports, Ramakrishna said it is an honour for him to be re-elected into office. He said: “It is a privilege to be trusted back into office for a second term. I am hoping to continue making strides in the cricket industry; we are committed to improving and nurturing cricket in Africa.”
“As part of our continuing plans we are now hosting the finals of the ACA t20 in Nairobi in the last week of August or first week of September. The regional qualifiers for the Southern region were held in Gaborone in November 2018 where Botswana emerged champions,” Ramakrishna revealed.
He further highlighted that him continuing being in office means they will have to change strategies that they have been using. He said: “The strategies are different as we now have to serve the interests of Africa.”
“My duties are to improve the state of cricket in Africa as there is a huge imbalance as some countries has cricketing history or backgrounds compared to other countries where cricket is relatively new. It also depends on leadership in those countries and level of exposure as well,” he narrates.
Ramakrishna also added that he remains on the board of directors in BCA. “In fact we have the BCA AGM on the 30th of June, after my term as CEO I was co-opted into the board, as tournament director,” he added.
Asked on his contribution to cricket development in his resident country, Ramakrishna had this to say: “Local strategies differ in a lot of ways as here we are concentrating on grassroots developments, building up structures for various age groups.”
Other members who took office in the ACA include the chairperson Jackie Mohammed from Kenya, his vice chairperson being Nigeria’s Yahaya Ukwenya, director of finance being Mozambique’s Dipankar Sengupta, director of tournament being Namibia’s Hester Khan. For central and southern Africa representative Vivek Ganesan from Malawi, representative for north and west Africa K Asare from Ghana as well as representative for east Africa Eddie Balaba from Rwanda.
