Antigua PM takes on Caricom chairman
Thu, Jul 6, '17
St GEORGE'S, Grenada (CMC) — Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne yesterday defended his government's position of the Caribbean Community's (Caricom)'s view on the Cricket West Indies insisting that it has a policy of not interfering “in the internal affairs of institutions and governments”.
Browne, in a statement to the Caribbean Media Corporation ( CMC), said that the governance of West Indies cricket “appears to be an evocative romanticism of a particular Caribbean head”.
Addressing the ceremonial opening of the 38th summit of Caricom leaders here on Tuesday night, the host prime minister and incoming chairman, Dr Keith Mitchell, ardent cricket lover, said cricket, with all its challenges, remains a unique West Indian enterprise worthy of support and promotion.
He said the legacies that have been created by West Indian players on the field, and the voice they have given throughout generations to expressions of West Indian identity, have been well-documented and chronicled through the years.
“So, when we get together to discuss the current challenges of the regional game, it is not merely a case of politicians dabbling in some useless pastime.
“It is, therefore, greatly disheartening to me, and several other colleague heads, that after Caricom had taken common positions to assist in addressing the crisis of West Indies cricket, certain member governments thereafter publicly adopted different positions,” said Mitchell, a former cricketer himself, who once headed the Caricom sub-committee on Cricket.
