Caricom could split over WI cricket

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley says the unity of Caricom countries is under threat from the issue of the state of West Indies cricket. Rowley believes that the issue of the administration of West Indies cricket under the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), which was incorporated as Cricket West Indies (CWI) last year, is fracturing support among Caricom nations and could do real damage to the movement. Dr Rowley was making comments during an interview on Radio i95.5 FM yesterday evening. He said while he would not term Caricom as “impotent,” there was tremendous confusion going forward on the governnance of WI cricket. “The current arrangement in West Indies cricket is not just destroying cricket as a game,” Rowley said. “What is happening at the level of heads at Caricom should make it clear to people that the game is now and the management and the situation is threatening to destroy Caricom itself. Because when one leader who is hosting, the others could speak and the other leader could walk away because of something he said about what is going on in cricket and... what is happening with a particular country that is benefitting from the current arrangement. All kinds of issues arise and in that scenario, Caricom is losing sight of what really should be happening.” Rowley added that at his first meeting at Caricom Heads of Government, Caricom and the WICB appeared to have had a unanimous position that the committee that existed with the agreement of Caricom and WICB to go and look at WI cricket and come up with recommendations and whatever recommendations they came up with... would bind both parties and that would be the beginning of how to rectify the present dilemma. “What I found there was a very surprising situation because the WICB reneged on that position on accepting the findings of the committee. One of the findings was that we should dismantle the current arrangement, put an interim arrangement in place and work a way forward towards probably an Australia model,” Rowley said. Rowley said WICB president Cameron told Caricom “to our face” they were not accepting that position any longer because the WICB was now incorporated and was only beholden to their shareholders and not to Caricom leadership.