Former Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves regrets supporting Cricket West Indies (CWI) President Dr. Kishore Shallow because he believes Shallow lacks the necessary depth to handle the sport’s issues, stating that he turned out to “possess a shallow perspective”. Although he initially backed Shallow in 2019 for having “progressive ideas,” Gonsalves now feels that CWI has not moved the sport in the right direction under his watch.
His primary reasons for regretting his support include:
- Poor team performance: Gonsalves is highly critical of the state of the West Indies men’s team, specifically highlighting a test defeat against Australia as a major failure.
- Cosmetic reforms: He views the administrative changes made under Shallow—such as changing the president’s term length and minor voting adjustments—as purely “cosmetic” and “not of any consequence” to the actual management of the sport.
- Subservience to external influences: Gonsalves argues that West Indies cricket is currently in a “supplicant position” to the ICC and “Indian cricket imperialism” rather than serving the people of the Caribbean.
- Political conflict of interest: He strongly believes Shallow should have stepped down from his CWI leadership role immediately after winning a seat in St Vincent and the Grenadines’ general election and being appointed as the country’s Tourism Minister.
- Disrespect toward professionals: He claims the current CWI leadership has spoken disrespectfully about professionals, contrasting this with the professionalism of the previous administration.
Due to these frustrations, Gonsalves has called for Shallow’s resignation and expressed that West Indies cricket was “doing much better” under the governance of the previous president, Jamaican Dave Cameron, whom Gonsalves had originally campaigned against.