St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) was denied the opportunity to field a team in the regional T20 cricket tournament, the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), when the Unity Labour Party (ULP) was in office, Opposition Senator Carlos James says.
The 2026 edition of the tournament bowled off here at the Arnos Vale Playing Field on Saturday.
James said on Tuesday that when he was tourism minister, he suggested to Pete Russell, CEO of the CPL, that St. Vincent and the Grenadines host matches.
“I say, ‘Well, it is something that we can look at, but I want a team’,” James said on Star Radio, the opposition ULP’s radio station.
He explained that the then ULP government was in discussions with some investors and that he went to Barbados to meet with CPL officials.
“We pledged our support to the investors, but they wanted to give us games before,” James said.
James said the government wanted to have a team but he was advised that some individuals blocked SVG.
Negotiations with the investors were expected to yield more than a team. He said it was to include developmental programmes, especially for youth cricket and a sports science facility.
And two new teams were expected to be added to the competition this year, James said, adding that the toss-up was between Jamaica, Grenada and SVG.
Jamaica Kingsmen make their debut in this year’s tournament following the departure of the Jamaica Tallawahs after the 2023 season.
“But St. Vincent and the Grenadines was expected to be there, and someone delayed that process,” James said.
James said that he did not want to “go into too many details” but said that he understood that even West Indies Cricket got involved and recommended that the CPL hold off on adding two teams for this year’s tournament, adding that he was told that they may consider the offer of a team from SVG at a later tournament.
CPL games could have been played in SVG before James said, adding that he opted to have a team instead.
He referred to the staging of the Emancipation Cricket Festival in 2025, saying that local players benefitted from participating in that tournament, despite opposition from the then Opposition New Democratic Party (NDP).
International, regional and local players were featured in that tournament, James noted, adding that local players benefited because they earned more money than they had previously been given the opportunity to earn.
“You tell me, which one of the CPL teams hiring locals?”
Local players featured from all over the country, he said, with many of them being young, developmental players who got the opportunity to play alongside international players.
“And then they rubbished the Emancipation Cricket Festival and wrote letters to Cricket West Indies that they should not have the ECF,” James said.
“All of these things, there is a lot I can say — I can write a book about the nasty nature of some of the persons affiliated with the NDP and what they do behind the scenes in other forums to boycott St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” he said.
James was voted out of office in the November 2025 election, losing the North Leeward seat after one term, to the NDP’s Kishore Shallow, who is president of Cricket West Indies.