Shallow ‘waiting … impatiently’ on Gonsalves’ cricket festival

President of Cricket West Indies (CWI), Kishore Shallow, has declined to comment on the Cricket Festival being organised by the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), to mark the 50th anniversary of the regional team’s historic ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup victory.

CWI honoured the team at an event in June, which had been planned for months before Prime Minister of SVG, Ralph Gonsalves, publicly accused it of missing the opportunity to do so.

In 2023, Gonsalves supported Shallow’s winning bid to lead CWI.

However, since last year, he has emerged as a staunch critic of the sports administrator — whom he tried to woo to become a candidate for his ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) — since Shallow decided to throw his support behind the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP).

However, in March, Shallow was returned unopposed as president of CWI, despite Gonsalves’ campaign against him.

The continued poor performance of the West Indies on the field has provided plenty of fodder for Shallow’s political critics at home, even as he prepares to face off against the ULP’s Carlos James in North Leeward in general elections widely expected later this year.

James, who won the seat in 2020, on his second attempt, by a single vote after a contentious recount, pitched the cricket festival as a sports tourism event, even as Gonsalves has said that it is not motivated by politics.

However, some political observers have commented that the ULP’s apparent love for cricket and sports tourism could have been better demonstrated had it implemented a sustained grassroots programme during its 25 years in office, rather than a one-off event with strong political undertones.

They have also noted that Gonsalves had been chair of the CARICOM Prime Ministerial sub-Committees on Cricket from 2016 to 2023.

Speaking at a campaign event in Spring Village on Thursday, Shallow said that the NDP has laid out its plan for sports tourism.

“That means bringing people to the country via sports. We have done it with cricket, we have done it with football, and we are going to do it for the sports,” Shallow said.

“Now, after 25 years, all of a sudden, they start to talk sport tourism,” Shallow said.

Shallow noted that Kaschaka Cupid, the NDP’s candidate for West St. George, who is a director of Windward Islands Cricket, had commented during the campaign event about the cricket festival.

“I ain’t ready for that one. I’ll come back to that, probably at our next meeting, because I’m waiting on him impatiently. So, I won’t talk about that,” said Shallow, who has repeatedly said that he would not mix sports and politics.

‘most successful sporting administrator’ in SVG

Meanwhile, in his comments earlier at the campaign event, Cupid said that Shallow was “the most successful sporting administrator that we have in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

“And this is not just current. This is past, included as well,” he said, adding that Central Kingstown MP, St. Clair Leacock, a former president of football in SVG, might challenge this.

“Dr Shallow’s track record speaks for itself,” Cupid said, adding that when Shallow became president of the SVG Cricket Association, the accounts were in deficit.

 “Upon his exit, or his departure as president of SVG Cricket Association, our finances [had] risen to in excess of a million East Caribbean dollars,” Cupid told the campaign event.

“This is the transformative effect that Dr. Kishore Shallow has on just this institution. Can you imagine as an elected representative for North Leeward and as the next representative, can you see the transformative effect and impact that this man would have on this constituency and our entire nation?”

Cupid said Shallow is respected as president of CWI across the region “and is well on course to transforming that institution”.

He noted that he attended the award ceremony hosted by Cricket West Indies and the West Indies Players Association, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first World Cup-winning team in 1975.

“Now, unaware of the plans of Cricket West Indies at the time, our prime minister wrote to several cricket associations criticising the inability of Cricket West Indies to showcase or express gratitude and recognise these outstanding players during their time for their achievements.”

Cupid, however, said that Shallow is “always one step ahead of the game. Cricket West Indies had plans to honour these legends prior to his declaration, and the gala event was an extraordinary event where the legends of Cricket West Indies were recognised for their humble and extraordinary and heroic achievements.

“Now, people of Spring Village, just imagine having a man of the calibre, as I mentioned, of Dr Kishore Shallow in cabinet and his leadership.”

He said that SVG will be honouring these same players after CWI has done so.

“I find it very, very strange. But why honour players who have already been honoured for the achievement by Cricket West Indies? So I think that is something that we need to probably talk about and talk about being one step behind of Dr Shallow again and again,” Cupid said.

“Dr. Shallow continues to hurt up the man head. Now together, we are going to transform not only sports, but other sectors to make our beautiful country more vibrant.”

‘one of the biggest international cricket festivals’ in Caribbean cricket

Meanwhile, James said the event would be “one of the biggest international cricket festivals we’ve ever had in the history of the Caribbean cricket…

“And we have to look at how we are going to marry sports tourism, but also with festivals and the cultural components of that, and parts of that are going to come out as well.”

The tourism and culture minister said the emancipation cricket festival is going to feature “international cricketers from as far as Bangladesh, West Indies, cricketers from the region, cricketers from England, cricketers from the United States, and, of course, international cricketers who are going to come here.

“And we’re going to use the opportunity to identify and recognise our West Indies legends of the 1975 World Cup game, who have accepted the invitation to come here to come here to St Vincent and the Grenadines with us.”

James said the legends will be in SVG during the tournament.

“And we’re going to marry culture, because we’re going to have some entertainment with that local entertainment and international entertainment as part of the package,” he said, adding that the arrangements were being streamlined.