St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said recently that West Indies Cricket is currently in a crisis.
Gonsalves, while appearing on the Mason and Guest radio programme on Tuesday night explained that it was based on the performances of the regional sides in recent times.
“I think on the basis of performances in the recent World Cup and in the abysmally poor outcome we had in Sri Lanka and the very mediocre, in fact below par performance in the Caribbean in recent times, I think it would be fair to say that the cricket is in a state of crisis,” he said.
Gonsalves made it clear that the crisis was “not a crisis of governance so much but one of performance.”
He did state, however, that the two are connected as it is also happening off the field.
“I sense that there is innocence by the principles as to the extent of the condition.
“Every time I hear persons speak after a terrible performance, a poor performance, you get commentaries like we didn’t do so badly, we didn’t perform so well but there are bright spots and we keep looking for them,” he added.
“We don’t have to fool ourselves as to what is taking place,” the Prime Minister explained.
He highlighted the fact that the leadership of Cricket West Indies (CWI) needed to come out and give clarity.
“I’m not so sure from what I have been hearing that the persons in charge at different levels fully grasp what is here upon us…We need to know with greater clarity if in fact there is the bundle of credible ideas as to how we can get out of this profound crisis in our performance in cricket,” he declared.
The Prime Minister recommended that some form of engagement exercise be done, not only among those directly linked to the current administration and players but everyone in the Caribbean.
“We need to have a symposium, a conference, something to involve a wider cross section of persons not just those who are involved in the current leadership and the current make-up of the coaches, the people who are leading on the field, the people who are selected, we need informed people from across the region from all walks of life who can contribute to a greater understanding and fashioning of solutions and to have business and governments there because ideas will certainly need money to be implemented.”
