BRIDGETOWN—Grena­da Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Mitchell has praised the “at­ti­tu­di­nal change” of the new Ricky Sker­ritt-led Crick­et West In­dies ad­min­is­tra­tion and says it is a “fun­da­men­tal” de­par­ture from the “ar­ro­gance” which marked the pre­vi­ous Dave Cameron lead­er­ship.

While con­ced­ing there “may have been mis­takes made” ear­ly in Sker­ritt’s tenure, Mitchell said the new will­ing­ness to en­gage with stake­hold­ers and com­mit­ment to in­clu­sive­ness meant crit­i­cal build­ing blocks were be­ing put in place for the fu­ture suc­cess of West In­dies crick­et.

“The at­ti­tu­di­nal change has been the most fun­da­men­tal. In any­thing you’re do­ing in life, I al­ways [say] in the pol­i­tics I’m in­volved in, hu­mil­i­ty is a ma­jor plus – a ma­jor part of suc­cess,” Mitchell said dur­ing an in­ter­view on pop­u­lar ra­dio crick­et show, Ma­son and Guest, here ear­li­er this week.

“We get lost eas­i­ly as politi­cians by demon­strat­ing ar­ro­gance in pow­er and if you’re in busi­ness and you demon­strate ar­ro­gance you will suf­fer. Sim­i­lar­ly in sport. I think there was a lev­el of ar­ro­gance that I saw dis­played by the pre­vi­ous ad­min­is­tra­tion and I’m not afraid to say it.

“Some peo­ple may not like it but I saw it first hand be­cause I was sup­port­ive of the change when it took place, but I be­came lost ear­ly when I saw the be­hav­iour pat­terns that ‘I’m the boss’. There are no boss­es in this thing; West In­dies crick­et is about all of us.

“The play­ers are sup­posed to be treat­ed as they’re sup­posed to be, the board must be re­spect­ed, the gov­ern­ments must be re­spect­ed – we all have a role. But the lev­el of ar­ro­gance that I saw dis­played by the pre­vi­ous ad­min­is­tra­tion, that’s what got me on the wrong side of them.”

While serv­ing as chair­man of CARI­COM’s sub­com­mit­tee on crick­et, Mitchell of­ten found him­self at odds with CWI, es­pe­cial­ly af­ter throw­ing his full sup­port be­hind the CARI­COM-com­mis­sioned Bar­riteau Re­port on Gov­er­nance back in 2015, which called for “the im­me­di­ate dis­so­lu­tion” of the board and res­ig­na­tion of the ad­min­is­tra­tion.

Af­ter re­ceiv­ing con­sid­er­able op­po­si­tion to the move from Cameron, Mitchell, along with Vin­cent­ian Prime Min­is­ter Dr Ralph Gon­salves and Trinidad and To­ba­go coun­ter­part Dr Kei­th Row­ley, be­came high­ly crit­i­cal of the ad­min­is­tra­tion, lead­ing to a well-pub­li­cised im­passe.

Last March, how­ev­er, Sker­ritt de­feat­ed three-term in­cum­bent Cameron in CWI elec­tions staged in Ja­maica, promis­ing to re­store di­a­logue with stake­hold­ers and trans­paren­cy in de­ci­sion-mak­ing.

Mitchell, who has al­ready met with Sker­ritt, said he was pleased with the ear­ly signs be­ing sent from the ad­min­is­tra­tion in all the key ar­eas.

“I no­tice now, and I must say this, the present pres­i­dent and his team, I saw the will­ing­ness to reach out,” he point­ed out.

“I like the tone. They are not per­fect —they may have been mis­takes made in the ini­tial stages but that’s life. As long as we are pre­pared to work to­geth­er and build this thing, West In­dies crick­et will get back.”

He con­tin­ued: “I have seen some of our [re­gion­al] lead­ers at this point not hap­py with some of the ac­tions of the present aboard about some of the ini­tial de­ci­sions but I have nev­er seen … the pres­i­dent or mem­bers of the board at­tack­ing a prime min­is­ter for his or her opin­ion and to me that is a fun­da­men­tal change.

“The prime min­is­ters have the feel­ing and in­ter­est of crick­et be­cause it af­fects their coun­tries. They ex­press an opin­ion – they may be right or wrong—but for you as a board mem­ber or pres­i­dent to be at­tack­ing a prime min­is­ter pub­licly for his opin­ion, for how he see­ings things, does not make sense.

“I see that as a fun­da­men­tal change with Sker­ritt’s lead­er­ship and the present [CWI ad­min­is­tra­tion] and to me that will flow over to how he treats the play­ers.”

Go­ing for­ward, Mitchell said once Sker­ritt re­mained open to di­a­logue and in­clu­siv­i­ty, he be­lieved the an­i­mos­i­ty that ex­ist­ed be­tween re­gion­al lead­ers and CWI would be re­placed with co­op­er­a­tion.

“I be­lieve the re­gion­al lead­ers, they all will want to see im­prove­ment in West In­dies crick­et and they will work with the present board and work with the play­ers and the ex-play­ers to move West In­dies crick­et for­ward,” he stressed.

“I’m re­al­ly hope­ful in 2020. I don’t ex­pect to see a mas­sive change overnight but I [hope to] see pro­gres­sive change and suc­cess over [a] pe­ri­od of time.” (CMC)