State of West Indies cricket threatens CARICOM Unity – Trinidad & Tobago PM

West Indies cricket is in dire trouble, in crisis

Trinidad & Tobago’s Prime Minister Keith Rowley has warned that the West Indies could face relegation from the top tier of international cricket if the regional game continues in its current state of crisis.

Laying the current demise at the feet of Cricket West Indies, Rowley said nothing proactive was being done to salvage the situation but rather, administrators were simply hoping for a “miracle” in order to turn things around.
“My perspective is that West Indies cricket is in dire trouble, in crisis, and if we are not careful, something is likely to happen in the not too distant future even though it is not being spoken about now,” Rowley told I-Sports radio.

“I don’t know that the ICC (International Cricket Council) will continue to put this sub-standard West Indies team to play against the top 5 or 6 teams going forward into many more years.

“What I am frightened of, is that somewhere in the not too distant future common sense will prevail at the ICC and they will create some kind of a premier league and a 2nd division and West Indies cricket will end up in the 2nd division because of the standard we are displaying and we will end up playing cricket against Ireland, Scotland, Kenya and Afghanistan and that is where we are headed.”

Cricket a hot topic at CARICOM summit

Rowley was speaking against the backdrop of the CARICOM Heads of Government summit in Grenada last week when West Indies cricket emerged as one of the hot topics.
CARICOM chairman, Grenada’s prime minister, Keith Mitchell, used his opening speech to outline the challenges facing the sport regionally and to urge fellow leaders to find consensus on the way forward.

Rowley agreed with Mitchell that CARICOM had a vital role to play in helping to overhaul the sport especially since Cricket West Indies seemed unable to find solutions to the current crisis.

The debate over West Indies cricket also appears to have caused a rift in CARICOM with Antigua & Barbuda prime minister Gaston Browne openly disagreeing with the regional nation grouping’s position on the “immediate dissolution” of Cricket West Indies.
In a statement last week, Browne said: “Antigua & Barbuda as a matter of principle does not interfere in the internal affairs of institutions, and governments that are governed by democratically elected officials.”

But in dismissing that argument, Rowley said Browne seemed to have “anchored his position on some discussion about democracy.”
“We here in Trinidad & Tobago know that does not apply”.
He, however, conceded there was disunity among CARICOM on the contentious topic.

“What is happening at the level of heads at CARICOM should make it clear to the other people that the state of the game and its management is threatening to destroy CARICOM itself.” -(CMC)