CARICOM's refusal to ‘manners’ the WICB demonstrates its failure to serve the interest of West Indian people

If any regional activity demonstrates the complete failure of CARICOM to serve the interest of the West Indian people, it is their refusal to ‘manners’ the WICB. This organisation has exploited its extra-regional linkages with other just-as-dysfunctional cricketing bodies to run our cricket into the ground without anyone seeming to be able to do anything about it.

Most recently, the newly-elected PM of Jamaica, “Sister” Portia Miller raised the issue of the WICB’s exclusion of Chris Gayle from the regional teams. The WICB, in the manner that has now become customary, suggested that the Honourable PM was ignorant about the issue. That’s right: a PM whose trade mark is her grounding with the ordinary folk and is a huge cricket fan, is ‘uninformed’ of the Chris Gayle issue!
So now the Jamaican Cricket Board and the Jamaican political establishment are up in arms – agreeing that the board is “rude and crude”. Threats of ‘secession’ were heard. But this latest episode demonstrates the disjointed pattern of CARICOM decision-making. When President Jagdeo, and most directly Minister Frank Anthony, complained about the exclusion of Sarwan and Chandrapaul from the WI team last year, WICB’s Hilaire arrogantly accused the latter of engaging in the ‘luxury of parochialism’ and not having a “reasoned approach”!.
CARICOM as a body must act now to save our cricket from the WICB. Maybe the recommendations of our IMC might be combined with those of the Patterson Committee and used as the basis of the reorganisation.