Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonzales has offered the services of three sitting prime ministers to solve the impasse in which West Indies cricket has found itself. I beg to differ with this approach. Just look at the state of Caricom. The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has promised to establish a task force but up to today there is no announcement of such. Instead, the three parties, the WICB, the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA), some individual players with attendant lawyers have been meeting in what is reported as cordial sessions.
This is no time for cordiality but for urgent actions. The WICB must eat humble pie and step aside for now. In fact, none of the three parties should be part of any task force because, presumably, they all have questions to answer.
What in fact should happen is that a task force of external but interested people should be appointed immediately with terms of reference to include, inter alia,
1) a short-term plan of action (say six months) to address the following: a) to begin to heal the relationship with the BCCI; b) to ensure that the best available WI team goes to South Africa in December; and c) similarly for next year's World Cup;
2) a longer term strategic plan for the future of WI cricket.
The task force should consist of a) former Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson, producer of what is known as "the Patterson Report" which contained proposals, some of which if previously implemented would have prevented the debacle which now exists; b) Tony Cozier, celebrated commentator, writer and historian of WI cricket; c) the inclusion of an independent and well-respected former English international cricketer and commentator such as David Gower; and d) as chairman of the task force, the eminent jurist Sir David Simmons who has enhanced his reputation as Chairman of the Commission of Enquiry into the 1990 coup and the Concacaf Commission of Enquiry and is currently heading another commission of enquiry in Jamaica.
Secretary to the task force could be any eminent attorney in the Caribbean who has played the game at least at the national level. And there are a few of them.Of course, and this may be difficult to achieve: all three parties, the WICB, WIPA and the players must, at the outset, agree to be bound by the findings and recommendations of the task force.Time is of the essence.
Annette Singh
via e-mail