West Indies cricket chief and NDP’s North Leeward candidate Kishore Shallow has labelled the St. Vincent’s Emancipation Cricket Festival a ‘Big Circus.’ Shallow speaking on BOOM FM 106.9 on Tuesday says the (Circus) is trespassing on CPL, and it cannot be sanctioned as a tournament.
The CWI president said there are no other tournaments in the Caribbean from 10 to 30 overs that could be held in the Caribbean without the sanction and cooperation of CPL.
On Tuesday evening a release from the Prime Ministers in the form of a letter addressed to Anette Mark, CEO of the Tourism Authority, from the CEO of CPL stated the following.
“Dear Ms. Mark, Many thanks for your letter dated 14th July, informing us of the Emancipation Cricket Festival, which is due to take place at the Arnos Vale Cricket Stadium from the 31st of July to the 4th of August.”
“We are delighted to confirm that CPL has no objection to this tournament, and we wish you and your team every success in celebrating such an important landmark for West Indies cricket.”
Shallow on BOOM FM says he understands that they had asked a current cricketer to play a coordinating role; however, there are no experienced cricket administrators involved, and that circus is an attempt to copy him.
“This is really a political show being put on by our prime minister to copy me. Most people would credit me with the success of the VPL. And if you look at this, the tournament that they are looking to have. It is a version of VPL; you could see they’re trying to copy VPL.”
Shallow noted that state resources could have been used for the people’s advancement.
“The reality is, and my problem with this mainly is that you’re using state resources on this festival, this circus, and you are going to, in a very disingenuous way, take advantage of the legends of West Indies cricket. The same people who are responsible for our legacy. You are going to use them for your own political motive. I mean, this fella would go to the lowest. To be re-elected, but that is no surprise because he has that obsession with power,” Shallow said.
