Long-serving Bermuda Cricket Board member Rudolph (Mutt) Lawrence yesterday supported claims that his colleagues on the Board had made "unconstitutional" amendments to policy during March's annual general meeting at Warwick Workmen's Club.

Lawrence, who first joined the Board almost half a century ago in 1955 and was present at the AGM, told The Royal Gazette that high ranking officials were fully aware that the constitution was not being followed but chose to continue with the meeting anyway.

"I was more embarrassed for Reggie (BCB president Reggie Pearman) after he stood up there and did something like that. I just thought either the guy is being controlled or he's just gone off his head. I couldn't believe he did it", said Lawrence.

"This whole thing (amendments) was hurried through. I sat there with `Sad' Brown on the night of the meeting and when they brought up making the changes to the name (from BCBC to BCB) I knew that they couldn't do that. First of all, they would have to send clubs proper notification. Then you have a special meeting and after that the proposed changes to the name would have had to have gone back through parliament."

"The meeting was unconstitutional because the clubs were not properly notified," he added. "And all of those changes shouldn't have taken place at the AGM because it wasn't on the agenda. That's elementary. It's as simple as that.

"If they wanted to have a meeting two weeks before or a month before with the affiliates, then fine. But you come to an AGM and all of a sudden the president asks . . . `all those in favour of a name change say I'. They didn't know what it meant, what it entailed or where they had to go.

"When they said `name change' everybody just said `alright name's changed from BCBC' but they didn't know all of that had to go through parliament. They had to go through the right way and manner."

In a statement to The Royal Gazette this week, BCB officials stated the AGM had been conducted in an "orderly fashion" and in accordance with "common practice".

But Lawrence said he was amazed that no-one had challenged the irregularities from the floor.

"Everyone knew but they just sat back and accepted whatever. Ellsworth Christopher (BCB second vice-president) even knew that it was wrong but he just sat there and allowed it to go through," he said.

Christopher could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Since the allegations first appeared in The Gazette exactly a week ago, BCB officials have also failed to explain any of the alleged irregularities.

Lawrence insisted that alteration of the Board's official title was "unconstitutional".

"They said that the Board wasn't incorporated. They didn't even know that the Board was incorporated," he added. "I said `this is not right'. If you want to do these things then you have to do things right. You must send the clubs a notice stating what it is that you would like to do. What happens is that clubs send people to represent them at AGMs but when they (BCB) want to make big changes, traditionally club presidents will attend so that they are well aware of what's going on."

The former BCB executive also accused Board members of operating like a dictatorship.

"I told people many years ago about them (Pearman, BCB secretary Charlotte Simons and former president Elvin James). They came in like a coup," recalled Lawrence. "El (James) was sitting on the Board under Ed (Bailey) and every time Ed asked them to do something or help out, they always made up excuses that they were pre-occupied. But at the same time they were getting together to overthrow him (Bailey), so to speak."

With regard to allegations that BCB treasurer Neil Speight was appointed despite the constitution stating that non-Bermudians cannot serve in an executive capacity, Lawrence, said: "Clubs voted him (Speight) in and they didn't even know what they were doing. They done that a long time ago and you couldn't tell them anything. But what really bothers me is that the majority of people that attend those meetings (AGMs) think that they are coming up there to represent their clubs instead of realising that they are representing Bermuda cricket overall."

He also criticised the Board's latest attempt to "gag" all cricketers from speaking to the media.

"It's amazing now that we are going to punish some fellows (Jermaine Postlthwiate and Dexter Basden) because they spoke up to the Board," Lawrence said. "When I was on the Board before, the media used to meet with officials right outside of the door. And I'm referring to Reggie, Molly and El James. They used to give out all sorts of statements to the media but they never used to give out their names. But now because somebody has questioned their ability to run the Board, they want to punish them.

"It's anybody's right to speak up if they see something that is not right."

Lawrence said local cricket was currently in a sad state of affairs.

"It's a sad day for Bermuda cricket. What are we doing? If you did your research you would see that we have lost sponsorship on top of sponsorships Now Camel have gone. What that lady (Camel representative Joanne McPhee) said in the paper (Mid Ocean) was a thing that really drove a knife through the heart of local cricket. All we have now is Belco and even that remains in controversy after affiliates voted in favour of increasing the competition to six teams (PHC and Willow Cuts).

"Right now, we are at the bottom of the barrel and we can't go no further.

"What are we playing for? I can remember when this World Cup thing started. We were way up there but now I look at countries like Bangladesh and Namibia. All of these countries couldn't beat us back then but now they are gone way ahead and we are just sitting here marching backwards."