"Allow CARICOM to intervene!" - P.J Patterson on West Indies, India crisis

Having blasted all parties involved in the latest impasse involving the West Indies players, the players’ union, WIPA, and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), P.J Patterson, a former prime minister of Jamaica, has expressed the hope that the regional political body, CARICOM, will be allowed to intervene.

Earlier this week, CARICOM through, Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda prime minister, who chairs the organisation, offered to assist in the crisis, which resulted in the premature and controversial  withdrawal of the team from the tour of India last week. 

Mr. Patterson, speaking with TVJ’s Nadine McLeod on Wednesday, said he also understood that Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell, widely known for his interest in West Indies cricket, had offered to assist as well, “and I hope that they will themselves of what he has to offer.”

In reference to the task force that has been set up to investigate “what went wrong,” Mr. Patterson said he would await the report of that body “before engaging in any further comments.

But when pressed, the former prime minister did say he felt personally hurt at the crisis, having chaired a committee which recommended changes to the governance structure of West Indies cricket.  

He said the region “would have been spared much of the hurt and the agony which we are now experiencing, because the management for the way forward required then, and even more so (now), a skills set that begins with the Board, the constituent elements, and must of course include the players, themselves.”

The Patterson led Committee on Governance of West Indies Cricket (which also included Sir Alistair McIntyre and Dr. Ian McDonald) published its Final Report in October, 2007.

It recommended, among other things, a two-tiered system for governing West Indies cricket, constituting a Cricket West Indies Council, and a Cricket West Indies Board.

The Patterson Committee also recommended the establishment of a strong Secretariat to carry out the day-to-day administration of West Indies cricket.

It noted then that “When the Board gets embroiled in administrative details, or in a daily quarrel with the simplest of things, its authority and credibility become severely undermined.”