The parliament of St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Monday passed a bill offering citizenship to the surviving members of the West Indies team that won the 1975 men’s cricket World Cup.
However, opposition lawmakers abstained from the vote, saying that the move was motivated by politics and they did not want to be part of an exercise that draws the region’s cricket legends into domestic politics.
The bill comes amidst an ongoing push by Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves to outdo Cricket West Indies in their celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the West Indies’ 1975 One Day International cricket World Cup victory.
President of Cricket West Indies, Kishore Shallow, whose praises Gonsalves once sung, is running as a candidate for the main opposition New Democratic Party in general elections widely expected by November, ahead of the February 2026 constitutional deadline.
Presenting the bill to Parliament, Gonsalves quoted its preamble, saying that the law was intended to recognise and acknowledge their contributions to and impact on the sport of cricket and the general culture of the West Indies.
Gonsalves noted that people obtain Vincentian citizenship as of right if they are born in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) or if, at birth, they have a Vincentian parent.
A person can also obtain Vincentian citizenship by discretion, on application, if they are married to a Vincentian and authorities are satisfied that it is not a marriage of convenience.
Secondly, citizenship can be conferred on a person who has lived in SVG for seven years or if they have obtained permanent residency.
Gonsalves further noted that a third pathway to citizenship, if that the minister of citizenship can grant citizenship to a person who has been associated with SVG for no less than five years, has made a significant contribution to the economic development of the country or to sports or culture or some social sphere, can read and write and speak the English language with a sufficient proficiency, and is a person of “good character”.
Also, a second-generation Vincentian can apply for citizenship under a law passed with bipartisan support in September 2023.
“Now, what we are seeking to do in this bill is to provide the opportunity for the surviving 12 members of the West Indies, Cricket World Cup team, the opportunity to apply for it, but they not having satisfied any of those other conditions,” the prime minister told Parliament.
He said that if any of the 12 former West Indies cricketers to whom the law applies want to become a citizen of SVG, they merely have to write to the minister responsible for citizenship, indicating their desire to be registered as a Vincentian citizen.
He noted that the law is not declaring any of the 12 former cricketers as citizens of SVG.
In justifying the law, Gonsalves said he had put the idea out into the public after it had been raised with him “by a number of ordinary Vincentians, and I haven’t heard anything adverse to this idea”.
He reiterated his government’s objection to citizenship by investment.
“Now, a person, when they get the citizenship, they may, if they wish to, apply for a passport. That is another stage in a process,” he said, noting that some Vincentians born in SVG have never applied for a passport.
He said that across the world, four countries or regions have dominated a sport for 15 years or more in the 20th century into the 21st century.
They are the Soviet Union/Russia, in ice hockey, East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia) in long-distance races; Cuba in boxing; and, and WEst Indies in cricket.
Gonsalves, however, said that in recent years, West Indies has been “to put it mildly, spiralling into a descent.
“Indeed, of the top cricket nations, I think of the full members of the International Cricket Council, I think we are number eight of nine. I think Zimbabwe is below us.”
Gonsalves noted that the West Indies were champions in the first two One Day International World Cup, adding, “but since then, we have not been doing particularly well what is expected of us.
“And there is a sense that something should be done as part of the overall esprit de cour of cricket, and to bring back in this lean period, some sense of upliftment to this critical element in our civilisation, this cultural sporting phenomenon.”
He said his government considered two teams — the 1965 team that became unofficially the World Champions in Test cricket and the 1975 team that won the World Cup.
“And persons saying, ‘Well, yes, it’s good for you to recognise the team of 1965 but the one which is lodged in the consciousness of people across the region, and certainly St. Vincent and the Grenadines, is the side … in the inaugural One Day International Cricket World Cup…
“So this thing, which is part of our core, part of our essence is now conjoined with the highest office in the land, the offering of our highest office in the land.”
He said that in addition to entitling the cricketers to hold a Vincentian passport, should they so desire, they can also buy land in SVG without having to apply for an alien land holding license.
“It may mean it if they wish to have a passport provided to satisfy all the provisions requisite to the grant of a passport, the application and everything therein,” Gonsalves said.
The prime minister said he did not know if any of the former cricketers will take up the citizenship offer, but added that the captain of the team, Clive Lloyd, a Guyanese, has indicated that he would do so.
He further said that the President of Guyana, Irfaan Ali told him it’s a good idea to offer Vincentian citizenship to the cricket legends.
“… maybe we may offer it and nobody applies, nobody takes advantage of it, or some may do and some may not, or all they do. I’m hopeful that as many as possible find it in their circumstance,” he said, noting that some people’s citizenship of one country prevents them from accepting it in another.
“I think we should honour. It would be a wonderful thing if the entire parliament, within the frame of the discussion that I’ve put it — and I’ve had it here, so that it would not be in any way commingled with anything else — that if we can leave this parliament unanimously, I think the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the people of the Caribbean would be most pleased. And I think we will set an example for others…
“Let us do honour to these great men without controversy today, and hope that we all support this bill,” Gonsalves said.
Politics, politics, am a neutral individual when coming to any political regime or government but if Mr shallow was not running against the Prime Minister ULP Party, nothing like this would of been offered, why now, am not Vincentian but people of SVG, wake up, if the show was on the other foot, I would of written the same thing, as I stated,am very neutral
Most Vincentians like my self who holds an American passport don’t even apply or use our Vincentian passport if we do have one whenever we are traveling.
Same can be said about Canadian and British.
I’ve even heard Vincentians say that they will never get another Vincy passport.
So all this passport thing is just politics
Now this is pure comedy or the rest of the Caribbean will follow suit.
So the aged people will come here now fo live and work? . Whats its purpose ? know people born here and don’t even use or have a vincy passport if they have dual citizenship. . Something or somebody ah really torment ar yo wicked evil badminded people. .. CRICKET torment dem torment dem torment dem, torment dem until some ah dem shut down dem pampers
If he had a soul or a heart rather than a mind consumed by political gamesmanship, the PM 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.
😂, ar yo want dem fo come tek way ar we house land job wife husband ? we hypocrites will pay de price some day .