Former St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves has insisted that West Indies cricket is in crisis and has called on regional governments to play a more integral role in decision-making processes.
Although concerns about the state of West Indies cricket have persisted for decades among regional supporters and stakeholders, scrutiny has intensified over the past year following last summer’s Test series defeat to Australia, highlighted by the team’s shocking 27 all out at Sabina Park.
The Caribbean team is currently ranked in the bottom half of all the ICC’s men’s rankings, sitting eighth in Tests, 10th in One-Day Internationals and seventh in Twenty20s.
Cricket West Indies’ (CWI’s) financial situation has also drawn concern with the governing body reporting it will lose US$26 million this year, though they expect to make a profit in 2027.
Gonsalves, who served as Prime Minister for 24 years before losing the general election last November, told the Jamaica Observer that CWI should work with governments more closely to properly address the issues.
“The governments have to get involved but the governments [are] not going to get involved seriously if Cricket West Indies continues to think that governments will pour money into Cricket West Indies without them having a say,” Gonsalves said.
Although CARICOM has a cricket subcommittee, once chaired by Gonsalves, the regional body has no direct governance role within CWI.
While the International Cricket Council (ICC) also prohibits government interference in the administration of its member nations, Gonsalves said cricket is too valuable to the Caribbean for governments to not be involved.
“The pristine rules don’t apply to Pakistan and India because the Indian Supreme Court already said that this thing is a public good, it can’t be run by a purely private enterprise. I’m sure if it comes to our courts that they will rule similarly because it makes perfect sense.
“The law is right reason and right reason indicates that you can’t have a public good, of this type being run by a private entity and certainly you can’t expect the parliaments to vote money to put it inside of the organisation,” Gonsalves said.
“I’ve thought long and hard about this thing and I dare anybody to tell me that my conclusions are not correct.”
Gonsalves believes that the region’s leaders should seek approval from the ICC to have a greater role in reforming and managing West Indies cricket.
“If this matter is discussed within the context of the region and governments decide this is way we’re going to do it and we want to play a part in the management of it and to restructure it, we have to make a demarche (formal diplomatic representation of government’s official position) to the ICC and say this thing cannot continue like this, because if it continues like this, it would fold,” he said.
“So I don’t think it’s a question of trust, it’s whether we as governments in the region decide whether we’re going to be involved in this matter, and in order to comply with the perspectives of the ICC, where are the tolerable limits for the state’s involvement because we are in a crisis.”
The West Indies return to action next month with three ODIS and three T20s against Sri Lanka at Sabina Park in Kingston.
(JAMAICA OBSERVER)
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