St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has slammed the leadership of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Dave Cameron as “poor” and “embarrassing” and has called for the firing of the Jamaican executive as head of the regional board.
The long-serving regional prime minister was speaking in reference to Cameron’s handling of the recent players contracts impasse, which resulted from a disputed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and the subsequent abandonment of the India tour by the West Indies One-Day team.
More significantly, Dr. Gonsalves comments come just a few weeks ahead of the WICB annual general meeting when Cameron will be up for re-election.
“I hope the respective boards in the territories tell him to take a break and come back at a later date, perhaps with more mature, renewed skills of leadership,” Gonsalves told the Nation newspaper in Barbados.
“I think his leadership in this regard has been extremely poor and has embarrassed us before the world. I happen to know certain facts which drew me to the conclusion that it is his leadership that led to the premature end of the tour of India,” he said.
The outspoken Dr. Gonsalves has played a central role in trying to resolve the impasse that ensued when West Indies players walked off the one-day tour of India, following the fourth One-Day International in Dharamsala last October.
The Indian Cricket Board blamed the WICB for the abandonment of the tour and subsequently lodged a claim for US$42 million in damages.
