St Vincent’s Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves stated that SVG would not host any of the games for the Australia 2025 tour of the West Indies, despite assurances or indications of assurances provided to the state by Cricket West Indies.
On Sunday, Gonsalves remarked that reasonable individuals might argue that a person serving as president of Cricket West Indies should refrain from engaging in active politics within any of the territories, competing for elections.
Gonsalves further stated that on Wednesday, 5 February, close to midday, a letter arrived from Cricket West Indies indicating that in 2025, all SVG would receive would be some games featuring a T20 with women, and he expressed that he would not want to imply in any way that there is any deceit involved.
Now I do not want to suggest at all that there’s any perfidy involved. I will never suggest that the president of Cricket West Indies, because of his membership in the New Democratic Party, and he’s running as a candidate. I’d never suggest that you’d want to see Saint Vincent and the Grenadines disadvantaged in an election year. I wouldn’t make that suggestion at all. That’s why I wouldn’t say that there’s any perfidy at stake.
It raises the question which I raised from the very beginning and which leaders in CARICOM have raised at a meeting in Guyana. It is entirely inappropriate, and I want the region to quote me on this. It is entirely inappropriate for the president of Cricket West Indies to remain as president of Cricket West Indies while he is an active politician competing for electoral office in one of those territories, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Cricket West Indies is a uniting phenomenon. Cricket West Indies should not be subjected to political divisiveness, and there should be no taint of that cricket. Cricket West Indies, in this regard, is like CARICOM, the OECS, and the University of the West Indies. You don’t expect the vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies, even if the rules don’t completely prohibit it, to be a candidate in Jamaica, Barbados or Trinidad for electoral office. You wouldn’t expect that to be the case with the president of the Caribbean Development Bank. You wouldn’t anticipate that from the secretary general of CARICOM or OECS.
One would expect that with his re-election next month for Cricket West Indies. Dr Shallow could have said, Well, I will not offer myself any longer. I will cut short my term because I anticipate that the election in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines will be sometime after that. Instead, what is happening? He is seeking to have his term extended by a year. Raising the Webb report to see if they can get that accepted (today) Sunday to extend his term by a year and to have the elections next year instead..
Now reasonable persons may enquire. Is Doctor Shallow seeking to do this as gamblers will do it in each way bet? Just in case I don’t make it here, I make it there. Persons may raise that query. Now, I raise this in the context of bringing people for cricket. Of course, the Government of Saint Vincent is not an NGO. If Cricket West Indies wouldn’t want to provide games, which there was If not an assurance, an indication that more than likely you will get Australia games some T20s. But we should be told why not? And if there was any issue which we needed to address, give us an opportunity to address, as we have done with the Cricket World Cup and also with the Bangladesh game. And the government had indicated that through the Minister of Finance, the person who is dealing with Cricket West Indies, that we’d like the games, and we will make adjustments if you wish.
I will not aver perfidy is at stake. That’s because if you have cricket, if you have the Australian team coming here in an election year, it gives a bounce; it gives a mood that, you know, the opposition may not like it. And I’m not saying that this would have influenced Doctor Shallow. I would not dare suggest that without any evidence but reasonable persons. May say that, that is why somebody who is in charge of Cricket West Indies as president, should not be involved in active politics in any of the territories while competing for elections”.
