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Last Monday, Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister threatened her ministers and party officials that she would “buss” their heads if they did not walk away from behaviour she considered to be leading down the road to corruption.
Although she said she knew who they were, she did not name them.
“Get yourself out of that now, because I will come for you. I am not afraid. I will fire you. I will ensure you face the courts.”
Photo: UNC.
She went on to acknowledge that she knew about past misconduct.
“All the things some of you did and think you get away in 2010 to 2015 will not be repeated… Straighten up, fix yourself, behave yourself—too many thousands of persons are depending on us.”
She made a distinction between when she was prime minister from 2010 to 2015 (she referred to herself as Kamla 2.0), and she warned that she had learned from mistakes of the past, and would not tolerate any conduct that strayed from her playbook.
Photo: UNC.
You have to acknowledge that it was a courageous move to publicly call out her team members, knowing that critics would pounce on it as evidence of the party’s capacity to succumb to the corruption that has infected this society for far too long.
But Mrs Persad-Bissessar was speaking from a position of absolute power, and this was how she has chosen to wield it.
This was an example of a governance strategy—striking because it demonstrated that she was willing to throw down the gauntlet to her colleagues in defence of the principles on which her campaign was based.
Coming as it did on the same day that Cricket West Indies held a press conference to report on its discussions over two days, it was a remarkable contrast.
Photo: CWI Media.
On Tuesday, the West Indies cricket team pulled off a magnificent victory in the final match of the three One-Day Internationals against Pakistan.
It was the first series win in more than 30 years, and the outstanding performances from fast bowler, Jayden Seales (6-18) and the captain, Shai Hope (120 not out), which were supported by Roston Chase and Justin Greaves, deserve to be celebrated.
For those who follow the fate of West Indies cricket, while the achievement is to be applauded, there is no longer any talk of it being the beginning of a turn in its trajectory. There’ve been far too many gilded moments.
Photo: CWI Media.
However, there is something to look forward to in the development of the bowlers, who have been a promising and exciting collective under the guidance of coach Ravi Rampaul.
To return to the press conference earlier this week, I can understand why the committee felt it had to do it, but I don’t get why it was so vague and devoid of anything substantive.
Brian Lara may have been there out of a sense of duty, but he seemed more jaded than enthused. The new CEO, Chris Dehring, despite his optimistic and energetic outlook, must be wondering if he will be allowed to fulfil his visions.
Photo: Staebroeknews.
Certainly, it seemed odd that he was placed in the frontline when CWI president Kishore Shallow was the one who convened this “emergency summit” and then slunk in towards the end, never joining the others.
I should not have been surprised.
That evening, Fazeer Mohammed was the guest on a podcast (Massive Hit Cricket Show) and he was his usual forthright self, presenting a comprehensively structured and scathing review of the issues surrounding the state of West Indies cricket.
Photo: AFP/ Getty Images.
He started off by declaring that he had “zero expectations” from this meeting, and thus, he was not disappointed. If you can, you really should listen to his analysis. I found myself nodding in agreement with many of his points.
A smokescreen is what he called it, recalling the Caricom summit that took place in April 2024 without any apparent results, despite the hype. A report was to be submitted and considered in July of that year. I paid attention, waiting to hear what was to come. If anything did, I remain unaware of it.
Fazeer made the point that it is all well and good to provide us with an action list, but as he rightly noted, we’ve had consultations and reports that go further back than the ages of our current players. What has become of them?
Photo: Caricom.
At the heart of these reports is the conclusion that the governance structure is deeply flawed.
For any meaningful change, the administrative system has to be radically restructured. That has been the common finding throughout the various dispensations.
If you think about it, people have come and gone within the organisations, and the biggest change has been in the name of the organisation running West Indies cricket.
Blaming individuals doesn’t get to the heart of it. As with every organisation, there will be the good, the bad, and the ugly. What keeps an institution running is its commitment to a governance structure that provides for these elements with systems to provide checks and balances.
No one wants to see politicians take over West Indies cricket, although loosely speaking it is run by a bunch of politicians.
Perhaps what is needed now is someone like Kamla Persad-Bissessar to march in and pelt some clouts for fooling around with a public good that still remains unaccountable under its mantle as a private entity.
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Vaneisa Baksh is a columnist with the Trinidad Express, an editor and a cricket historian. She is the author of a biography of Sir Frank Worrell.
