Opposition Leader Godwin Friday declined to vote on Monday on a law offering Vincentian citizenship to the surviving members of the West Indies cricket team that won the 1975 One Day International World Cup.
“As it is for now, I will have to withhold my vote either way on this matter,” Friday said as he led off the debate on the “1975 Men’s West Indies World Cup Cricket Team Citizenship Bill, 2025”, which the government used its majority to pass.
He said he hoped that the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), regardless of their politics, continue to hold the legends of 1975 in the same regard that they did 25 or 30 years ago, “and that it is in no way tainted by the sordid business of our domestic politics”.
Some political observers have said that the bill is part of Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves’ continued attempt to outdo Cricket West Indies (CWI) in commemoration of 50 years since the historic win.
President of Cricket West Indies (CWI), Kishore Shallow, is a candidate for the Friday-headed opposition New Democratic Party in general elections widely expected later this year.
“I’ve come to the position soberly, seriously thinking about this bill as to what I ought to do,” Friday told Parliament, adding that he and his opposition colleagues have discussed the bill.
“I do not think, under the circumstances, I can embrace this bill the way it is coming forward. At the same time, … I cannot vote against the legends. I won’t sleep tonight, probably not for the rest of the week,” said Friday, who traced his love for cricket back to his childhood and admiration of the legends of the 1975 team.
“I should not be in the position here in this honourable house, having to make that choice. This should be clear-cut, but it’s not because of the underlying politics that’s driving it,” he said.
Friday was leading off the debate on the bill that Gonsalves presented, saying he hopes it received bipartisan support.
The bill allows the surviving members of the1975 West Indies team to be granted Vincentian citizenship on application, which would entitle them to apply for a Vincentian passport and own land in SVG, without having to obtain an alien landholder’s permit.
Friday said Gonsavles was right about the place that cricket holds in the hearts of Caribbean people.
He, however, said his experience organising a tournament in Bequia over 10 years shows that young people are not as interested in the game, preferring basketball and football.
Friday spoke of the excitement of the 1975 victory, adding that the members of the team are “legends” and “greats”.
He said the decline of West Indies cricket did not happen overnight, adding that over the years, “we have created individual geniuses”, opining that nobody can bat better than Brian Lara.
Friday included among the more recent greats, Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
“And then the list thins out,” he said, adding, “It’s been a steady and slow decline.
“… we can all look at individual series, we can look at individual players, and we can look at individual administrations and coaches and so forth, and try to point the finger and say, ‘This is where the decline started.’
“And we can hope for a resurgence, and we’ve been saying that for a long time, that we have the talent, and there’s no question about that, but it has not brought us any sustained success, and we continue to search and to hope, but we also have to act
“It’s not a case of recrimination, as we hear around the region and even here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Let’s face it, for some, the fault is one man: Kishore Shallow, even though the trials of West Indies cricket preceded him by many years, and may continue after he’s no longer there. We hope not.”
Shallow, who is the NDP’s candidate for North Leeward, became president of Cricket West Indies in 2023 and was reelected in March, unopposed to a second term in office.
Politics should not motivate honouring of legends
Friday said the legends should be honoured, noting that CWI did so on the 50th anniversary in June.
“And the prime minister asked the question, ‘Well, why now?’ And that’s a question that I asked as well. He says, ‘better late than never’. But the question is also not why now timing but how do we choose to honour these great men for their unmatched service to the region.”
Friday said the greatest legacy or contribution that lawmakers could make to that legacy of champions is to give them the confidence “that we will put in place that which is required for us to build champions again”.
He said CWI’s activity to mark the 50th anniversary of the West Indies victory was appropriate and involved the “whole establishment of cricket, and I dare say, the national governments and teams and so forth.
“That is how it should be, because these players, these legends, they transcend national boundaries,” Friday said, adding that conferring citizenship on them is “small reward for what they have given to us as a region.
“We don’t question that. … what needs to be done, though, is the manner in which these things are done. They have to be inclusive, and they have to be done in a way that elevates the cricket and the stature of those persons who were seeking to honour.”
Friday said that honouring the cricket legends is an opportunity to be inclusive, adding that his information was that CWI was not invited to be part of SVG’s plans to do so.
“And if you’re thinking about … what is driving this initiative here today, we have to ask ourselves that question, ‘Why, in alternative to Cricket West Indies, rather than together with Cricket West Indies management?
“That is strange, to say the least, and maybe more. I would like to think that the legends who are mentioned all here would not wish to, in any way, descend or to be involved in the local politics of any particular country in the region.”
Friday said lawmakers must, therefore, “be very careful to keep them out of it and not to have any kind of appearance that somehow they are being embroiled or brought into our local disputes.”
The opposition leader said embroiling the legend in local politics diminishes their stature across the region.
“And for me, it pains me in my heart, I cannot bring myself to say anything that is against or critical of any of those members of the team. … They are too much a part of my sense of who I am as a Caribbean person, and of my love of the game of cricket…
“And this exercise here causes those concerns to well up within me, and it makes me not just sad. It infuriates me.”
Friday said it was time to act on Trinidadian calypsonian David Rudder’s call to “rally around the West Indies.
“Everything we do has to come together as one, not one here, something Cricket West Indies doing, and one here that the government or the Parliament of St. Vincent and Grenadines doing as if we are in competition with them, when in fact they should be embraced and help to sell this as this great positive thing that we are doing.”
The opposition leader noted that the government has organised an Emancipation Cricket Festival to honour the legends, also without the involvement of CWI.
“And you have to ask the question, ‘What is driving this?’ … And it’s sad, it saddens me. And the more I think about it, it infuriates me, because I do not want that memory, those cherished memories, those revered heroes, in any way in my mind, to be associated with doubt or anything negative, least of all politics.”
ULP doesn’t the Opposition to vote with them, they own the parliament. That one vote win last election gave them a majority in parliament. Now, if that doesn’t seem fishy I don’t know what does. […] No wonder in all of the Caribbean the 80-year-old man has been in power since 2001 and nobody seems to care. The CIA are known for this behaviour throughout the world from ever since. Install a puppet leader then the IMF and World Bank step in to ruin the country and keep it poor.
Why wasn’t it a special award given the 1975 players and issued by the islands that make up cricket West Indies.?Why is our leader trying to insert himself alone and not getting the other leaders on board and have such an event in lets say, iAntigua?
On the surface it looks like a noble gesture, but ,if you dig deeper, it’s downright dishonest ,designed to mislead Vincy people. Hope the 1975 greats would see this for what it is. Elections in St Vincent are coming up fast and this leader desperately wants to hold on to power, even if it means making up an event with the likes of the 1975 players. Just know, this is not about the great team of 1975. Stay woke.
Well said! I agree totally. This bill serves no meaningful purpose. What confuses me however is the way in which we can always produce legislation on a whim to suit our purposes. This was done in record time, but we are still waiting 20 plus years for the words to form the bill on integrity legislation.
My brother Shallow when they throw whatever on you, and everyone know they will , just use it as fertilizer shake it off and soar higher . 🙏 God and you alone decides your destiny. All they are doing is just making you more famous. Man evil is God university.
If he had a soul or a heart rather than a mind consumed by political gamesmanship, PM Gonsalves would certainly have granted citizenship to the descendants of the Garifuna who were ethnically from their beloved homeland, a country he inherited from our British overlords, a country whose head of state is still the British monarch, King Charles III, who I’m sure would have welcomed such reparation.
Unfortunately there are no Vincentians living or otherwise in SVG. Ralph Gonsalves should be arrested and detained for using subversive tactics on the Vincentian people. There maybe Western forces embedded among the population. This is another distraction so people don’t notice the bigger issue of submitting to the IMF and World Bank which is killing SVG under taxes which will keep them poor for decades to come. After all Mustique is a sovereign sub-nation under SVG.
Ralph Gonsalves is mainly interested in dividing the people, anything for political gains while the masses suffer under high taxes to pay off the IMF and World Bank loans.
The PM could have been discussed this honoring of the legends at the recent caricom heads of government meeting but no it will take away from his plans to try out do CWI. It is about Ralph is using the legends in his dirty politics looking for votes.