Tweet made by WICB president absolutely crass, says PM Gonsalves

Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves has described as “absolutely crass”, a tweet made last Sunday evening by president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Dave Cameron.

Gonsalves made his comment in Parliament on Tuesday, while congratulating the West Indies cricket teams on their recent T20 domination.{{more}}

“What was absolutely crass was the tweet by the president of the West Indies Cricket Board Dave Cameron that essentially targetted… [captain] Darren Sammy,” said Gonsalves.

Cameron had tweeted: “When is the last time a critic paid one of your bills? Always remember that when you start to give them your energy.”

Gonsalves added, “When you talking the next time, remember that cricket pays you… pays your bill.”

The Prime Minister stated that despite Cameron’s opinion, it is the players who, in fact, keep their “bureaucratic infrastructure” going.

“In fact, it’s the West Indies cricketers who keep this bureaucratic infrastructure going; the private superstructure, managing and controlling a public good entirely, an anachronistic idea in the 21st century and which CARICOM is determined to change,” he added.

Gonsalves said he hopes the CARICOM heads of government can do something special for the players of the three teams.

“Congrats again to these teams and to the cricketers of the Caribbean youth, female and male.”

The tweet, which has since been deleted, came after captain Darren Sammy took the board to task in his post-game interview, when he was asked how the team’s victory felt.

“We had a lot of issues, we felt disrespected by our board…,” an emotional Sammy said.

He also stated “Lastly I want to thank the heads of CARICOM, throughout this tournament they have been supporting the team, we’ve got e-mail, and we’ve got phone calls. [Grenadian] Prime Minister [Keith] Mitchell, he sent a very inspiring e-mail for the team this morning…I am yet to hear from our own cricket board. That is very disappointing.”

In a January edition of the Jamaica Observer, Gonsalves brought into question the leadership skills of the WICB president, describing them as “poor” and “embarrassing” and called for Cameron to be axed or resign as head of the regional body.

“I think his leadership in this regard has been extremely poor and has embarrassed us before the world.”(CM)