TUESDAY’s special Heads of Government meeting in Port-of-Spain avoided any official discussion on either the current dispute involving the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), as well as seeking a “consensus” regional candidate for the post of Commonwealth Secretary General next year.With some six Heads of Government of the 15-member Community absent, the meeting, chaired by host Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, opted to stick with the primary agenda issue, namely:
A concerted regional response to deal with the threat of the dread Ebola virus creating havoc with lives across states of Africa, and the paralyzing effects on thousands of CARICOM citizens from the mosquito-infective chickungunya disease.
The CARICOM Secretariat, member governments and regional health institutions will be involved in a proposed ten-point action plan to deal with both the Ebola threat and the spreading problems resulting from the so-called ‘chickv’ virus.
The Community leaders, however, signalled before their adjourned meeting, the option to discuss over dinner likely initiatives to help resolve the dispute that has arisen between the WICB and the BCCI as a direct consequence of last month’s unilateral aborting by the WI players of their scheduled tour of India.
Among absent Heads of Government were the Presidents of Guyana, Haiti and Suriname, and the Prime Ministers of Jamaica, Dominica and Grenada.
“Consensus” Commonwealth SG
The other issue that was announced for discussion by the Community Secretariat, but again deferred, was the need for “consensus” on a candidate from CARICOM for the post of new Commonwealth Secretary General.
The election is to take place a year from now, in November 2015 at the 54-nation Commonwealth Summit in Malta.
When this issue first surfaced for official discussion at last July’s CARICOM Summit in Antigua and Barbuda, it was deferred for later consideration.
The Community Secretariat, in announcing arrangements for Tuesday’s special Heads of Government meeting in Port-of-Spain, said the leaders “will also seek to arrive at a consensus with regard to the CARICOM candidate…”
Latest indication signalled is that this required “consensus” would now take place next month in Cuba when the latest triennial CARICOM/Cuba is scheduled to be hosted in Havana on December 8.
Among already identified contestants for the post of new Commonwealth Secretary General are Antigua and Barbuda’s nominee, Sir Ronald Sanders, reported to be the current ‘front-runner’; Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Planning and Sustainable Development, Bhoendradatt Tewarie, and Baroness Patricia Scotland of Britain, who is the sponsored candidate of Dominica.

(From Rickey Singh)