–mediation urgent but Jamaica’s Patterson ‘too ashamed and angry,’ as Grenada’s Mitchell await ‘terms of reference’

Analysis by Rickey Singh
WHILE CARICOM governments and institutions are feverishly grappling to keep at bay the dreaded Ebola killer disease from the Caribbean Community, there has now emerged a spreading  and totally unexpected  challenge for this region’s best known sport—West Indies cricket.

The dilemma, which could prove devastatingly costly for the West Indies Cricket Board, the players and all participating member states, has resulted from  the shocking, dramatic decision by the West Indies cricket team to suddenly abort their scheduled tour of India.
Except for our traditional seasonal electioneering politics with which we could be so enthusiastically gripped, there is no game, no sport, to so deeply touch our lives in this region with passion and excitement like West Indies cricket.
Hence, the prevailing gloom over spreading threats of a  backlash from  India for the West Indies team’s unprecedented decision to abandon their tour of India and the resulting warnings for the future of West Indies cricket in 2015 and beyond.
In the circumstances, the separate interventions by that recognised statesman of West Indies cricket, Clive Lloyd-current chief selector-and the Prime Minister of Grenada, Dr Keith Mitchell, (who has lead portfolio responsibility in CARICOM for regional cricket)-to find a sensible resolution deserve to be seriously pursued by the governments of our Caribbean Community, including urgent diplomatic initiatives.

Like the former long-serving Prime  Minister of Jamaica, P.J. Patterson, Dr Mitchell is well recognised for his passion, knowledge of and commitment to the development of West Indies cricket.
His public offer to play a mediating role in the very serious dispute involving the West Indies Players Association, the directors of the West Indies Cricket Board  and the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI), therefore deserve serious consideration..
Given his years of diplomatic initiatives on behalf of the Caribbean Community, and more precisely, his own well recognised report, of seven years ago this month, on the future of West Indies Cricket, further recommends him as an evident choice to complement Prime Minister Mitchell’s mediating role for a speedy resolution to the quite serious problem on hand. Is

CARICOM ready for such an intervention?
CARICOM’s intervention
In a brief telephone conversation with Mr. Patterson this past week, he revealed his “deep hurt and anger” over what’s viewed as a tragic development. As he told this columnist in a telephone conversation:
“What happened in India is a final act of the humiliation for the people of our Caribbean…I have a feeling of shame and anger, and from very early I came to learn that when you are angry, what you have to say could be most damaging  and unhelpful…”
In the circumstances, said Patterson, “I wish to avoid saying anything further at this time, except to extend good wishes for Prime Minister Keith Mitchell’s offer to mediate….”
Subsequently, Prime Minister Mitchell, told me that he could empathise with the mood of Mr. Patterson as he himself had earlier described the prevailing situation as “bizarre.”
Nevertheless, Mitchell gave the assurance that he would be “happy to help if the terms of reference (for mediation) are clear and all parties are supportive….’
It is to be hoped that the WICB directors themselves would have made some significant progress by now, along with Clive Lloyd, to engage both Prime Minister Mitchell and, separately, former Prime Minister Patterson—despite his expressed anger–to help in finding an urgent realistic resolution to the crisis situation facing West Indies cricket.
There remains a need to also hear from the Community’s Secretary General, Irwin LaRocque, of what specific regional initiatives, if any, are being pursued for a resolution with the BCCI, now that the Community’s chairman, Prime Minister Gladstone Browne of Antigua and Barbuda, has given his own public response.
Quiet diplomacy
Even as WICB President, Dave Cameron, and his top colleagues were meeting in Barbados last Wednesday, in their  quest to find an urgent practical resolution with the BCCI  decision makers, the CARICOM chairman had noted:
“It was a pity that the regional board “did not settle their differences before the tour of India began…The display of these domestic differences in such  an internationally public way does no credit to West Indian cricket in its entirety….Nevertheless”, assured Prime Minister Browne, “CARICOM governments stand ready to intervene at the invitation of the WICB and the player s association should they consider such intervention to be necessary…”
Meanwhile, it was learnt that “quiet diplomacy” is unofficially at work involving “significant CARICOM personalities,” including from the public and private sectors, for “urgent creative initiatives” with the BCCI, as well as representatives of the government of India, in view of “the historical good relations that need to be preserved….”
Whether or not the WICB could yet persuade Mr. Patterson, for one, to be a team-player, along with Prime Minister Mitchell and the renowned, chief selector, Clive Lloyd, is left to be seen.
Long gone are the days when one of our more popular and influential CARICOM leaders  could have sought the urgent intervention of a Prime Minister of India to help resolve the sort of crisis in relations with our region as has dramatically emerged.
Yet, as one of the world’s leading old democracies with long sustained good relations with the Caribbean, for which cricket remains a significant cornerstone, ALL efforts should be made to help the WICB and BCCI to urgently find an enlightened practical resolution.

(Rickey Singh is a noted Caribbean journalist)