11-04-2026, 11:48 AM
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Voronan Cricket Board caught out in multi-million dollar 'sticky wicket' scandal
![[Image: ae56b894-9113-443a-b190-c5f3435e0a72.width-800.png]](https://cricviz-westindies-production.s3.amazonaws.com/images/ae56b894-9113-443a-b190-c5f3435e0a72.width-800.png)
Members of the Vorona National Cricket Team in Fort William, Luthori, for the T20 World Cup
Having benefited from numerous subventions throughout the years, the $34 million VRD that had flowed into the Voronan Cricket Board (between 5714 and 5719) had been similar to the other subventions; all intended as a lifeline for cricket in Vorona on all levels of public and private life. Yet, according to a scathing audit tabled in the Federal Parliament, it had essentially become a ‘slush fund’ for the board’s executive members. Over the period, as the VCB collected recurrent subventions, broadcast fees and corporate sponsorships, much of the infrastructure previously built to support the nation’s comparatively infant cricket scene had been left at the wayside. The national women’s programme, which had been initially created to attract more women and girls into the sport, which until then had been largely male-dominated, was quietly discontinued for a ‘lack of funding’, among other reasons. Six district cricket clubs and associations reported ever increasing difficulting in securing basic equipment grants from the VCB, which maintained a programme directly from the Department of Education to partly sponsor equipment purchases for community as well as primary and secondary school cricket activities. The audit, which had been compiled by the Auditor-General’s Office following both queries and complaints to the Financial Ombudsman of the supposed funding difficulties being faced by the aforementioned associations, found that $14.3 million VRD, which is approximately 42 per cent of the Board’s total income over the same period, could not be adequately accounted for. Within it, the report, which has since been forwarded to both the Integrity Commission and the VCF’s Serious, Complex and Organised Crime Agency, identified some 43 individual transactions, totalling $4.2 million, as being either fraudulent or unverifiable. Most notably, it names Dorian Patterson, the VCB’s President from 5703 to 5716, as the figure responsible for approving the vast majority of the flagged transactions at the centre of the controversy. Although it [the report] names Patterson, his attorney, Randy Ramsumair, has since sought to clarify that his client had not been charged, a fact which the SCOCA corroborated earlier yesterday morning when it announced that an investigation into the report’s circumstances had been officially opened.
The Voronan Cricket Board, as it is known now, was not always the self-governing entity it is today, as when Chief Secretary Sydney Dastayari, the last Chief Secretary of the Council of Government, appointed the board in the final years of the CoG, it had been largely a subordinate structure of the otherwise monolithic Chief Secretary’s Office. When representative government returned, and the CoG had been dissolved, most institutions were eventually reformed, reconstituted or brought formally under the authority of the newly elected government. The VCB, however, seemed to have fallen through the cracks during the transition as no legislation or legal notice that addresses it directly beyond noting that requests for funding would occasionally be made to the line minister (the Minister of Education) on the advice of the board and executive management. To that end, the Dastayari-appointed board continued to sit, convening regular meetings and providing periodic updates on the state of cricket on the national level in addition to updates on the state of the board’s affairs. “There was simply a great deal of things to do,” Dastayari, now 94, said in an interview over the telephone. “The country was essentially being rebuilt from scratch and cricket was not a top priority for either me or the incoming government.” A notice in the Official Gazette revealed that the only formal change to the board’s composition came when Clive Paul, a member of the 8-member board, had passed away. He was subsequently replaced through a process which the Department of Education’s own records described as an ‘administrative appointment’, which has confused some seasoned public administrators, amidst the fact that the position was never advertised, as is common among board appointments. It is worth noting that much of the controversy is set against the backdrop of Vorona’s relatively positive performance in the previous T20 Cricket World Cup held in Fort William, Luthori. What sparked the questions that would eventually lead to the audit was the uncomfortable set of comparisons the Voronan Cricket team were confronted with upon their arrival in Luthori, as the other teams present were largely supported by entire ecosystems of support from sport psychologists to trainers, support which the Voronan squad visibly lacked.
The single largest category of irregular payments flagged in the Auditor-General’s report was related to one Verdant Field Servant Ltd, a company which, up to the point that the VCB had begun conducting ‘business’ with, did not exist. According to records from the Eastern Voronan Companies Registry, the company’s stated activities were “landscaping services”. Its sole registered director was noted as Calvin Patterson-Roach, a resident of Eastern Vorona, of who searches of the Western Voronan civil registry revealed be the cousin, by marriage, of Dorian Patterson. On May 19th, Verdant Field Servant Ltd signed its first contract with the VCB, some eleven weeks following its formal incorporation in Eastern Vorona, for the management and preparation of the cricket turf at the Alwyn Peterkin Oval in Straughn at the cost of $210,000. Procurement details revealed to the Inquirer noted that no competitive tender was conducted as the contract was processed under the VCB’s emergency procurement provisions, which allow the executive committee to bypass the Vorona Public Procurement Office’s standard tendering requirements, in cases of urgent operational need. The Auditor-General’s report noted that between 5714 and 5719, the VCB had paid Verdant Field Services an estimated total of $2.8 million across fourteen separate contracts, each awarded under emergency provisions. This exists alongside the fact that the VCB, according to the same report, did not conduct a competitive tender for ground maintenance works at any of its venues during that period. An independent assessment of the service invoiced by Verdant was conducted by Sterling & Thorne Market Analysis on behalf of the Auditor-General’s Office, where it was found that the work conducted by Verdant was often 51% above the average market price for equivalent services during the same period. It also found irregularities in 5 of the 14 contracts between Verdant and the VCB, totalling $870,000, where billed works were never performed. This had been verified by simple physical inspections of the sites in question, where in one case, Verdant had billed the VCB to construct a retention pond on the greens opposite the National Cricket Academy in Taruba at an estimated cost of $20,000; however, work on the project had never started. Calvin Patterson-Roach did not respond to written requests for comment submitted to his registered business address and personal email; however, it has been reported that since the report’s release, he has retained the services of Ronald Quashie, SC, an attorney with Liberation Chambers.
The reaction from across the Voronan cricket community has been varied, with some expressing shock amidst the allegations and others being largely indifferent to what they described as “a public secret” among those knowledgeable of the board’s affairs. Marcus Estrada, who captained for various district teams throughout Eastern Vorona and applied twice to the VCB development fund without receiving a response, was one of the individuals who noted that the report confirmed what many in the club circuit had long suspected. “Yuh go reach by matches an see wha dem big countries an’ dem had, yuh know,” he explained. “Rel facilities, academies and opportunities for the young people. An den yuh come back home an we ain’t have none of dat’. We keep tell weself is ‘cause we small. Now I find out is ‘cause somebody was writin’ cheques to a company dat didn’t even exist? Pressha!” Sheldon Augustine, a veteran cricketer who won 41 caps for Vorona between 5695 and 5703, registered his pleasure at watching the national cricket programme deteriorating across the years since his retirement. “Wi a keep tell weself seh we jus goin through a rough patch,” he said. “Bad selections, bad luck, di yute an dem nah come through. Di game done gone. It a get nyam out from di inside, and wi out ya a blame di coaches.”
The Voronan Cricket Board, as it is known now, was not always the self-governing entity it is today, as when Chief Secretary Sydney Dastayari, the last Chief Secretary of the Council of Government, appointed the board in the final years of the CoG, it had been largely a subordinate structure of the otherwise monolithic Chief Secretary’s Office. When representative government returned, and the CoG had been dissolved, most institutions were eventually reformed, reconstituted or brought formally under the authority of the newly elected government. The VCB, however, seemed to have fallen through the cracks during the transition as no legislation or legal notice that addresses it directly beyond noting that requests for funding would occasionally be made to the line minister (the Minister of Education) on the advice of the board and executive management. To that end, the Dastayari-appointed board continued to sit, convening regular meetings and providing periodic updates on the state of cricket on the national level in addition to updates on the state of the board’s affairs. “There was simply a great deal of things to do,” Dastayari, now 94, said in an interview over the telephone. “The country was essentially being rebuilt from scratch and cricket was not a top priority for either me or the incoming government.” A notice in the Official Gazette revealed that the only formal change to the board’s composition came when Clive Paul, a member of the 8-member board, had passed away. He was subsequently replaced through a process which the Department of Education’s own records described as an ‘administrative appointment’, which has confused some seasoned public administrators, amidst the fact that the position was never advertised, as is common among board appointments. It is worth noting that much of the controversy is set against the backdrop of Vorona’s relatively positive performance in the previous T20 Cricket World Cup held in Fort William, Luthori. What sparked the questions that would eventually lead to the audit was the uncomfortable set of comparisons the Voronan Cricket team were confronted with upon their arrival in Luthori, as the other teams present were largely supported by entire ecosystems of support from sport psychologists to trainers, support which the Voronan squad visibly lacked.
The single largest category of irregular payments flagged in the Auditor-General’s report was related to one Verdant Field Servant Ltd, a company which, up to the point that the VCB had begun conducting ‘business’ with, did not exist. According to records from the Eastern Voronan Companies Registry, the company’s stated activities were “landscaping services”. Its sole registered director was noted as Calvin Patterson-Roach, a resident of Eastern Vorona, of who searches of the Western Voronan civil registry revealed be the cousin, by marriage, of Dorian Patterson. On May 19th, Verdant Field Servant Ltd signed its first contract with the VCB, some eleven weeks following its formal incorporation in Eastern Vorona, for the management and preparation of the cricket turf at the Alwyn Peterkin Oval in Straughn at the cost of $210,000. Procurement details revealed to the Inquirer noted that no competitive tender was conducted as the contract was processed under the VCB’s emergency procurement provisions, which allow the executive committee to bypass the Vorona Public Procurement Office’s standard tendering requirements, in cases of urgent operational need. The Auditor-General’s report noted that between 5714 and 5719, the VCB had paid Verdant Field Services an estimated total of $2.8 million across fourteen separate contracts, each awarded under emergency provisions. This exists alongside the fact that the VCB, according to the same report, did not conduct a competitive tender for ground maintenance works at any of its venues during that period. An independent assessment of the service invoiced by Verdant was conducted by Sterling & Thorne Market Analysis on behalf of the Auditor-General’s Office, where it was found that the work conducted by Verdant was often 51% above the average market price for equivalent services during the same period. It also found irregularities in 5 of the 14 contracts between Verdant and the VCB, totalling $870,000, where billed works were never performed. This had been verified by simple physical inspections of the sites in question, where in one case, Verdant had billed the VCB to construct a retention pond on the greens opposite the National Cricket Academy in Taruba at an estimated cost of $20,000; however, work on the project had never started. Calvin Patterson-Roach did not respond to written requests for comment submitted to his registered business address and personal email; however, it has been reported that since the report’s release, he has retained the services of Ronald Quashie, SC, an attorney with Liberation Chambers.
The reaction from across the Voronan cricket community has been varied, with some expressing shock amidst the allegations and others being largely indifferent to what they described as “a public secret” among those knowledgeable of the board’s affairs. Marcus Estrada, who captained for various district teams throughout Eastern Vorona and applied twice to the VCB development fund without receiving a response, was one of the individuals who noted that the report confirmed what many in the club circuit had long suspected. “Yuh go reach by matches an see wha dem big countries an’ dem had, yuh know,” he explained. “Rel facilities, academies and opportunities for the young people. An den yuh come back home an we ain’t have none of dat’. We keep tell weself is ‘cause we small. Now I find out is ‘cause somebody was writin’ cheques to a company dat didn’t even exist? Pressha!” Sheldon Augustine, a veteran cricketer who won 41 caps for Vorona between 5695 and 5703, registered his pleasure at watching the national cricket programme deteriorating across the years since his retirement. “Wi a keep tell weself seh we jus goin through a rough patch,” he said. “Bad selections, bad luck, di yute an dem nah come through. Di game done gone. It a get nyam out from di inside, and wi out ya a blame di coaches.”