Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has fired back at opposition candidate Kishore Shallow for saying St. Vincent and the Grenadines is 30 years behind St. Lucia economically.
Gonsalves said that Shallow should explain why the regional cricket team has sunken “lower and lower” since he became president of Cricket West Indies in March 2023.
The prime minister supported Shallow’s candidacy as president of cricket West Indies, but now says he regrets urging two of his regional colleagues to do so.
Speaking on Hot 97 FM on Sept. 24, one week after he was announced as the opposition New Democratic Party’s candidate for North Leeward, Shallow said it is time for the Unity Labour Party, which came to office in March 2001, to demit office.“It is not to say that they haven’t done anything over the two decades that they have been there,” Shallow said, adding that anyone who says that the ULP administration has not accomplished anything since coming to office is “disingenuous and not paying attention really”.
“But the reality is, if you even compare us to our neighbouring islands, and you look at the pace of how some of them are accelerating relative to us, Grenada, St. Lucia, we don’t even need to go any further, because you might just embarrass yourself,” Shallow said.
Shallow is expected to face off with the ULP’s Carlos James, who won the seat in 2020 by one vote after a contentious recount.
On his first attempt in 2015, James lost by 12 votes to the NDP’s Roland “Patel” Matthews.
Shallow has joined forces with the opposition about a decade after he rejected an offer to become a candidate for Gonsalves ULP.
In the interview with Hot 97, Shallow fielded a wide range of questions about the state of West Indies cricket and sports in general.
“Similar to how I’ve said for the last two decades North Leeward has been neglected, sports has been neglected in most of the Caribbean,” he said.
“If you ask most athletes in St Vincent and Grenadines, they would tell you that you play sports here because of passion. You’re not motivated to play sports.”
Gonsalves responded to Shallow on Wednesday, during his weekly appearance on NBC Radio, saying that it looked as though, “once you link up with the NDP, you start to talk a lot of foolishness”.
He said he had heard Shallow say that SVG is 30 years behind St. Lucia.
“Well, maybe when he goes to St. Lucia, there’s a designer store where he buys something very special, which you don’t have in St. Vincent,” Gonsalves said.
“… if we’re 30 years behind St Lucia today, we would have been 50 years behind St. Lucia, when we came to office. Anybody could tell you that we’re 30 years behind St. Lucia,” Gonsalves said.
He dismissed Shallow’s view as “nonsensical foolishness”, adding that on the day that Shallow made the comment, a St. Lucian woman had brought her child to SVG for brain surgery under the World Pediatric Project.
“Now, what Shallow needs to explain is why he is running West Indies cricket, lower and lower,” Gonsalves said.
“West Indies cricket under him is more than 30 years behind. That is what he must fix,” said Gonsalves, who is a previous chairman of the CARICOM Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on Cricket.
“They are at the bottom under his leadership in test cricket, they can’t qualify for a One Day International under his leadership,” Gonsalves said.
‘I was mistaken, thinking he cudda make things better, but he mek it wuss. And I apologise to everybody who I told, including Mia and Irfaan Ali,” Gonsalves said, referring to Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley and Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali.
“I apologise to them publicly. I’m sorry that I told you all that this young man will make it better. He has made it worse,” Gonsalves said.
“If anything is more than 30 years behind is West, indies, cricket and you bringing it lower. You have control of that, you want bring North Leeward lower? You wah drag it down like West Indies cricket?”
The prime minister said he met with Shallow on the morning before he took part in the NDP primary in which he defeated two other contenders.
“I said, ‘But you have repeatedly told me the NDP is backward.’ He said, ‘Yes, I told you that.’ He said, ‘And people inside of the party too tell me they’re backward.’
“I said, ‘And you’re giving consideration to going with them?’ I say, ‘If you do that, it would be one of the biggest mistakes you would have made.’ Well, we would see when more is said,” Gonsalves said.
Shallow outlined to Hot 97 the historical and other challenges facing the regional team and the sport in SVG and the Caribbean.
“But if you look at when I started playing cricket, I played cricket in primary school, and then I had secondary school, I had under-15 in secondary school and we had senior,” he said.
“We don’t have those sorts of things existing. What Cricket West Indies is trying to do is work closely with the governments across the Caribbean to try and get cricket back into schools,” Shallow said.
He said people are not playing road and beach cricket as much as before, adding, “So in the absence of those, you’re not going to find the sport as popular.”
Shallow the Cricket World Cup which was held in the region in June, gave the sport “a very positive injection.
“So, there’s some passion again. … There’s a bit of momentum taking place in cricket that as an organisation, Cricket West Indies is looking to capitalise on that, and you would see certainly more life around cricket.”
He said that when the region was “too busy celebrating” West Indies’ dominance of the sport globally based on raw talent in the 1970s, 80s and early 90s, other teams were investing heavily in technology, having learnt the West Indies’ aggressive style of playing.
“But they have pretty much put around that systems and infrastructure. And you know, when it comes to infrastructure and systems, you can’t compete…” Shallow said.
“… because, again, of our natural talent, and we are getting there, what we have to do is optimise the limited resources we have,” he said, adding that Windies have moved “from very low rank to number 2, number 3 in the world in T20.
“So, we are up there again and we are making some strides. We are winning a few more matches and we are more consistent with that. … but still, as I normally say, you can’t pause and think, ‘Well, yes, you’re winning series. So, then everything good.’
“There’s still so much to be done. We need infrastructure and infrastructure, you need government to invest in infrastructure,” he said noting the investment in cricket facilities that came with the World Cup.
“That is fantastic and great. We appreciate the governments’ intervention there but there’s so much more that must be done.”
Shallow further said that previous generations of politicians across the region did not see sports as a priority.
“And unfortunately, the agenda of politicians of the past has been to get re-elected only,” he said.
This is the best a leader can do in response to one person’s opinion? It’s shameful. Nuff said
And this became apparent since Shallow was announced as the candidate for NL? Ralph is so petty that this is not suprising.
Quid Pro Quo has has been the modus operandi of the Ralph led ULP government. That is exactly why persons who don’t toe the party line are left wanting. Similarly constituencies that does not support the ULP are left wanting as well. Piss poor !
Sir have u seen d murder rate in svg lately?
Come on
Comparative view: Do the maths.
How many years Dr. Shallow run the West Indies Cricket Board.?
How many years Dr. Gonsavales is running SVG Government?
When will learned men leave the school boy behavior behind, do for do mentality?
It said that leaders and leadership is wanting in our blessed country, at a time when crime and murder is at rampage, some leaders are still embarking on conflict, personal, and political.
Svg is a reflection from examples set by those in authority. Looking back at the fiasco in the House of Parliament, the name-calling, no accountability to the people, nepotism, favoritism, judicial interference, and no respect for each other, which is exhibiting from government, NGO, and business.
It is time to put SVG first in our preview and outlook, to see if we can help guide the young people.
Many of us were well discipline, but we are becoming thugs for convenience, not in physical ways but verbally on our air waves we can hear venous attitudes and reaction disseminating.
Svg is calling on us for united front: to save her from the dry brains syndrome. I (Eye)for I (eye) ; Biblical Paraphrase, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
Well the PM is put on the offensive insulting everything and everyone. If you had seen this years olympics you would have noticed the our government had not invested neither time or money in our athletes. Just look at the state of our football. If you saw any matches you would have been ashamed how our boys were unpracticed and unprepared. Our top sports people have to sell drug to get by. Our T20 cricketer are not even chosen to represent west indies because they lack motivation. They youth are willing but they need
discipline and motivation. They need national backing and qualified people to coach them. What Shallow said make much more sense than what the PM said.
As expected, Big Belly Ermine blue vex.
He who no one is ever good enough to challenge is reaching for his usual vicious vexation and nastiness. Let it be known that nobody ever achieves anything on their merit on his plantation unless he gives the nod of approval so that he can get to reap it up later. I guess it’s easy to see how SVG will implode and be no more once he exits…
and when he did get chap, he run go Barbados.
So sick and tired of this third grade school yard bully . can anyone spell hatred without Red?
Narcissistic Ralph thinks it should always be about him. Shallow isn’t thinking about himself sir. He’s thinking about the vast majority of Vincentians who don’t know where their next meal is coming from. You’re thinking about staying in power at all cost. Very selfish.
Ralph Gonsalves continues to think more of himself than he is! The man thinks everyone should be beholden to him because he “may” have done them a favour. He regrets galvanizing support for Kishorn Shallow. Did he every think that Kishorn would have won without him? But now that he has chosen to throw his hat in with NDP instead of the ULP, it has irated Ralph. Dr. Shallow is a rising star for himself and his achievements are his, not Ralph Gonsalves’. I am guessing if he had thrown in with the ULP the story would be different.
When the elections bell is rand, let us see if Kishorn can take it home for the NDP and to Ralph, everything is not about you and the ULP.
Is it just me or did the prime minister just invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in this sport that is getting worst and not better? So tax payers dollars just to throw away on dying things? Ummmmm
Man have no respect for anyone time for this clown to go
The writing was on the wall for the ULP. The fact that if one were to closely analyze the metrics . One would see a negative trajectory in many cases.We talk about crime, about the national debt ratio, decline in agricultural production as we know it , agriculture is dead.
There are some notable achievements for example the Airport, the new hospital and the new container pier. However, there have been so many things gone wrong that is the Vincentian narrative.
What is troublling with the NDP is it’s incoherent policy with respect to Taiwan. Taiwan is Ike a sister nation. In times of troubles they are there for us. Many of our people now reside there for the benefit of the nation. We ask the NDP to leave the current policy alone. You don’t try to fix that which is not broken.
It is not yet victory for the NDP. The Comrade always has his Trump card and I am thinking that when all other things fail , the Comrade would resort to his trump cards.
The Trump cards are many, bribery in the form of building materials is one of them The injection of young blood such as Doctor Shallow and Shevorn John are political headaches for the ULP. The writing was on the wall since the last election vis a vis losing the popular vote.
None other than “One Vote Carlos “is shaking in his pants. Folks even Rome has had its day and the ULP has had its time. The nation is ready for that change. Who better knows it than Trump.
RG is long past his shelf life. As the days go by his rot becomes stinker and stinker, and right now he is stinking up the entire place (SVG).
RG and his starless ULP vagabonds are long past their due date. They have been around for so long, they have started to rapidly decomposed and their released stench is blanketing SVG.
Shallow entry into politics is a real headache for the Comrade. This has ghe potential of an early retirement. Your 110 years longevity as you say could dinal retirement in peace.
A honest Doctor to challenge the spiteful Doctor. I hope Shallow wins his seat and bring more balance in parliament.
A similar argument can be made. Under whose chairmanship did LIAT die? Under whose rulership bananas died in SVG? Under whose rulership citrus fruits cultivation vanished in SVG?
Noel Dixon with all the hoopula the banana industry is dead. It’s a Dinosaur which cannot be resurrected. Let me see if the NDP with its rhetoric can revive it.
Truth be told, Agriculture in general death march began under the NDP regime and accelerated under the current regime. I am old enough to remember that.