Gonsalves to offer SVG citizenship to 1975 Windies cricket team?

Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves is pushing ahead with his plan to outdo Cricket West Indies in its celebration of the 50^th anniversary of the West Indies Cricket team becoming the unofficial winner of the 1975 ICC One-Day International Cricket World Cup.

The Order Paper for Monday’s meeting of Parliament contains a bill that appears to be offering Vincentian citizenship to members of the teams.

The “1975 Men’s West Indies World Cup Cricket Team Citizenship Bill, 2025” will be tabled by Gonsalves, who is also minister of national security, and has ministerial responsibility for granting Vincentian citizenship to people who are not born in the country or who do not have a Vincentian parent.

The bill is slated to receive its first reading, but the government can take a bill through all of its stages and make it law in one sitting of Parliament.

The surviving members of the teams are at least in their 70s.

Over the last few months, Gonsalves appears to be on a mission to outdo CWI and, in particular, its president, Kishore Shallow, who is a candidate for the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) in the general election widely expected by November.

Shallow will face off with Gonsalves’ Tourism Minister, Carlos James, who won the North Leeward seat in 2020 by one vote after a contentious recount, following his first outing at the polls in 2015, when he lost by 12 votes, also to the NDP’s Roland “Patel” Matthews.

In June, Gonsalves erroneously stated publicly and wrote media commentaries, saying that CWI did not have plans to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the 1975 victory.

However, his intended googly turned out to be a no ball as Shallow had announced since March plans to honour the surviving members of the 1975 team at an event in Barbados in June – the same month that Gonsalves made his comments.

Now, Gonsalves’ government is slated to host a hastily-organised cricket tournament dubbed the Emancipation Cricket Festival (ECF), from July 31 to Aug. 3 at the Arnos Vale Cricket Stadium.

The government has failed and/or refused to follow protocol and seek CWI approval for the tournament, even as the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) withdrew its endorsement a day after granting it, saying that it had thought that CWI had approved the festival.

Shallow had cautioned professional cricketers being courted by the government that participation in an unsanctioned ECF could put them at risk of being banned by the world governing body for cricket, ICC.

However, CWI later volunteered a no objection to the festival without the government seeking it.

Last week, after the West Indies’ humiliating Test loss against Australia in which the regional team collapsed for just 27 runs, Shallow addressed cricket and politics during an interview on Boom FM, in Kingstown.

He described the ECF as “a circus”, saying that Gonsalves intends to make “a mockery of the legends” who were on the 1975 teams by flying them to St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) and honouring them.  

What did Gonsalves give Pope and McCoy after their 2016 Windies win?

“Our prime minister is so disingenuous, it is not even funny,” Shallow said.

He noted that in 2016, West Indies won three World Cup titles, including the Under-19 championship.

That team included two Vincentians — Gidron Pope and Obed McCoy.

“Ask the prime minister what has he done for those two young men,” Shallow said, adding that every other government across the region honoured their nationals who were on that team.

“Grenada — Ryan John got house and land and money,” Shallow said. “What did Gidron Pope and Obed McCoy receive from this government under this prime minister who is currently claiming to care so much about West Indies cricket? I mean, it’s hypocritical.”

Gonsalves ‘put his foot in his mouth’

Shallow responded to the argument that CWI had done such a poor job of honouring the legend that the government of SVG had to step in to save face

“… Prime Minister Gonsalves put his foot in his mouth. Prematurely, came out firing, like in the wild, wild west, typical of him these days, and then he realised that he made a major mess of himself, not only locally, but regionally and internationally,” Shallow said.

“It was so shameful. I felt embarrassed for him, because had he even been in tune, he would have realised that there was an event being planned.”

Shallow said Gonsalves had even spoken to his colleague in Barbados — where the event was held — Mia Mottley, “he would have realised that this was something in the pipeline for some time.

“This is not something that could be coordinated in weeks. This was in planning since last year, where we had established a committee for it.”

Shallow said that the CWI event to honour the legends was “the best award ceremony ever held, certainly by cricket West Indies, and probably best in the entire region. “Bringing those legends together and honouring them, it took great effort. And it was so heartening that I would tell you that Alvin Kallicharran, one of our greats, … I remember, being on the platform with him … because I handed them their awards, and the gentleman was in tears. 

“They all, at some point, was so emotional about being honoured that they were brought to tears.”

Why no honouring when Gonsalves headed CARICOM cricket committee?

Shallow said that the event was not just an award ceremony but included a week of celebration in Barbados that included the legends attending a West Indies Women’s Cricket Team game.

 “Sir Clive and the others went and engaged, celebrated with the woman after they won the series against South Africa. Then they went to the first day of the test match against Australia.”

Shallow said the legends also attended a CWI board meeting, adding, “So, it was a full week of activities, celebrating with these legends.”

Putting things into context, Shallow, 40, said he was not alive in 1975 and was just born on the 10^th anniversary of the victory.

Shallow, who became president of CWI in 2023, said Gonsalves had ample opportunities to celebrate the 1975 cricket team, including when he was chair of the CARICOM Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on cricket from 2016 to 2023.

“… he was the chair of CARICOM subcommittee on cricket, why he didn’t bring it up then?”

Shallow said it was most fitting to celebrate the 50^th anniversary, adding that the current board of CWI and the West Indies Players Association and all the key stakeholders decided to come together and honour the legends.

“And I could tell you that every last one of those legends greatly appreciated that sincere initiative.”

The CWI president acknowledged that the honouring of the legend took place during the West Indies Players Association award ceremony but said that it was a CWI event and CWI incurred all the expenses.

Shallow also said the honouring ceremony was his idea, based on a conversation he had with Sir Andy Roberts a few years ago.

“… we had dinner, and we were just talking about cricket, and me learning about the history of our cricket and so on. … And he mentioned to me then that that team was never recognised, that in a formal way, they were never recognised.”

Shallow said that he did not make any commitment to Sir Andy. “But I left the conversation thinking, we have to do something for these guys.”

He said he met Sir Andy again three years ago and then he went to the board of CWI.

“I said, ‘Listen, there’s the opportunity coming for the 50th anniversary.’ … This thing is costly, so we had to take time to ensure we budget for it and all that. And that is how it manifests. We nah wild, wild west. We don’t operate like some — where we have to plan and we take our time.

“So, not because Kishore Shallow and Cricket West Indies executed an event mean, Oh boy. We ha’ match that. At least we gotta come good’ and so you put on a circus, because — that is not how we operate,” Shallow said.

He, however, said that the legends of the 1975 victory are respectful and would accept an invitation from a prime minister to attend an event is they can.

Shallow, however, said that he, as president of CWI, had not been invited to the cricket event and would not attend, if invited.

“… I could tell you, because of the political motive of this circus. I am not going to be part of that. I am not going to be part of anything that is going to be using, attempting to use our legends of West Indies cricket, who have worked so hard to build our legacy, I can’t find myself being any part of that,” he said.