CWI and politics in SVG

EDITOR: In recent weeks, the matter of cricket has become a political issue in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The President of Cricket West Indies is a candidate for general elections in this country. Last year, Bangladesh embarrassed the West Indies Cricket team by winning all the games in a 3 match T20 series on our home soil.

Earlier this month, we received the news that West Indies had fallen out of the automatic qualification zone for the 2027 ICC Men’s ODI Cricket World Cup. Last week, West Indies was bowled out by Australia for the lowest score it has ever made in our 100-year history of playing test cricket – 27. We lost the test series to Australia 3-0.

Literally, our game seems to be at its lowest ebb. We have also seen a flare up of tensions between the government and Cricket West Indies over the Emancipation Cricket Festival that is set to take place at the Arnos Vale Playing Field from 31st July to 3 rd August 2025.

Regionally, the President of Cricket West Indies has faced calls to resign from his position. The President has fired back and has criticised the regional governments for not investing enough in Sports.

This is an unfortunate state of affairs.

Personally, I do not think that the President of Cricket West Indies should be able to be a candidate in local elections. This view is consistent with the principle of political neutrality in sports. This principle finds expression in Article 15 of FIFA’s statutes which requires member associations to be neutral in matters of politics. I am surprised that there does not seem to be a similar provision with respect to cricket. The principle of political neutrality in cricket can ensure that cricket remains a unifying force that is accessible to everyone regardless of political beliefs, and prevent it from being used as a platform for political activism.

In our context, we are seeing many credible charges of cricket being used as a platform for political activism with respect to an apparent change in the decision to allocate West Indies vs.

Australia T-20I matches to SVG, the Vincy Premier League, and the Emancipation Cricket Festival. These matters have arisen as a result of a violation of the principle of political neutrality.

Beyond political neutrality, Cricket West Indies has to seriously consider the state of our cricket.

The President has to reflect on his performance in the job, and if he has been giving priority to the matters which are most important to West Indies cricket. To my mind, the most pressing matter for our cricket might have to do with the following question – what is the Board doing to promote the loyalty of regional cricketers to the West Indies team?

Brian Lara made the point that these days cricketers merely use the West Indies team as a stepping to lucrative franchise cricket contracts. I am not sure that the West Indies Cricket Board has done enough to address this fact. I know that some people might say that CWI is powerless to do anything about it, but I am not sure that this is really true. I am not sure that they are seriously thinking about the problem and trying to solve it. I could substantiate this point by reference to the recent retirement of Nicholas Pooran from West Indies Cricket.

Mr. Pooran is a star player. He retired from International Cricket at age 29, basically so that he could play franchise cricket around the world unencumbered. This is all well and good, but what I could not understand is all the fanfare that Cricket West Indies gave to Mr. Pooran when he announced his retirement. We have no grudge against Mr. Pooran, but this does not mean that we have to treat him as a hero of the West Indies Cricket cause upon his retirement at 29! This is just ridiculous.
The simple things can make a difference. The West Indies already has a small population. We cannot afford to lose our top talent. We have to build a system that helps maintain loyalty among West Indies cricketers. This is the point that was made by Brian Lara. Ironically, Mr. Pooran retired from all forms of international cricket shortly after the President expressed a desire for him to return to test cricket. I am not sure if that is the shallow effect.

I also noticed something in relation to our recent home series against Bangladesh which I believe is relevant here. Earlier in this article, I said that we lost all the matches in that series. However, if we look at the details, we might be able to better understand the importance of retaining our best players. In the first two games, we were able to restrict Bangladesh to modest totals – 147 and 129. In the final game, Bangladesh made 189.

Akeal Joseph (No. 1 T20I bowler in the world at that time) played in the first two games.

However, he did not play in the final game. That may have made all the difference in terms of the scores. Akeal did not play in the final game because he left the squad to play in a league overseas. Moreover, for the duration of that series, we did not have the services of Sherfane Rutherford who by then had already established himself as an anchor of our middle order. We could easily have won those three matches against Bangladesh. I think the loss of that Bangladesh series in SVG is an indictment on Cricket West Indies.

These matters are relevant to the political discussion taking place in SVG right now.

Luke Browne
lukebrowne@yahoo.com