Mottley: We cannot depend solely on CWI for cricket

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, has stressed that her country will not depend exclusively on Cricket West Indies (CWI) for cricketing opportunities. Her comments have come in the wake of CWI’s decision not to award Kensington Oval any regional or international matches in 2026. In adding her voice to the controversial move, Mottley said it was obvious Barbados could not rely solely on CWI.

She said that was one of the reasons the country lobbied for the finals of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) to be played at Kensington Oval. “It was clear to us that we could not only rely on Cricket West Indies for cricket in this country, and that is why we made a deliberate decision to go after the CPL finals here and to also be able to see what else we can do to boost the opportunities for Bajans in the entire game of cricket, not just as players, but as umpires and as persons who are involved in the ecosystem, period,” Mottley said.

Kensington, commonly referred to as ‘The Mecca,' will not host any of the four Tests, six One Day Internationals, or six T20Is scheduled to be played between June and August during the home series against Sri Lanka, New Zealand, and Pakistan later this year. Those matches will be held in Jamaica, Antigua, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana. The move has drawn criticism across Barbados, with both the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) president, Calvin Hope, and the chairman of Kensington Oval Management Inc. (KOMI), speaking out against the CWI's decision.

@sgtdjones

BIM going it alone?

I think that maybe Irfan’s vision is catching on. if the leaders in the West Indies get serious CWI might have to shape up

But they hiring more Bajans.

@natty_forever

going back to my post on Opiss thread on insularity… dem all fah dem kind

@jacksparrow

The ICC will suspend us. They don’t want any government interference in cricket( clearly a pacifying method for smaller boards because the Supreme Court of India had the entire n Srinivasan board removed and a state appointed caretaker team placed). Dr Rowley, Ralph Gonsalves and Kieth Mitchell had approached the ICC in the height of the big idiot madness to dissolve the CWI and they were told in no uncertain terms that any state interference would result in suspension from the ICC. Which is why they were disappointed when the then BCCI chairman decided not to impose the US 48 million dollar price tag of the aborted India tour on the board’s coffers because that would have driven them into insolvency and solved the issue without the regional governments having to get involved

There are about ten international cricket venues in the Caribbean. The official policy of Cricket West Indies is to give games to all of the venues. So obviously every venue will not host games every year. What's wrong with that?

The sense of entitlement from these people is staggering