My biggest mistake!

DAVE Cameron may have been a polarising figure in regional cricket but former former Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves says the sport in the region was better governed under the Jamaican’s watch. Gonsalves says he regrets backing current Cricket West Indies (CWI) President Dr Kishore Shallow.

Shallow has served as CWI president since March 2023 and is expected to demit office in 2028 after announcing he wouldn’t be seeking re-election. The Vincentian would have spent close to a decade on the CWI executive, having first served as vice-president in 2019 under then president Ricky Skerritt who defeated Cameron who served for six years.

Over the last two years, former Caricom cricket subcommittee chairman Gonsalves has been a strong critic of Shallow and the CWI board including calling for his resignation due to the state of the West Indies men’s team, particularly after last summer’s test defeat to Australia. Gonsalves also argued that Shallow should have stepped aside immediately after winning a seat in St Vincent and the Grenadines’ general election and later being appointed Tourism Minister.

Gonsalves was once a vocal supporter of Shallow. In 2019, he said Shallow and Skerritt “have very progressive ideas on how West Indies cricket should move forward in the plan they have put out. These are serious people modern Caribbean personalities, steeped within our Caribbean civilisation.”

However, Gonsalves told the Jamaica Observer that it was a mistake to support his fellow Vincentian.

“I was wrong about Shallow. I thought that he had the depth to carry this thing to see what this issue was about and he turned out in disrespect to possess a shallow perspective. You say to me ‘but Ralph, you supported him’ and I said to you, yes and a man is entitled to at least one mistake in his life,” he said.

Gonsalves says CWI under Shallow’s watch hasn’t truly progressed the sport in the right direction.

“West Indies cricket owes its legitimacy to the ICC, not the people of the Caribbean, which is controlled now by Indian cricket imperialism, because they have 500 million people watching it on television so they are in a supplicant position to the ICC and cricket imperialism. And the [national] associations, which are controlled by and large by cabals, are in a patron-client relationship to the institution called Cricket West Indies, not cricket in the West Indies,” he said.

“So all their reforms have been cosmetic — don’t have the president to be two years anymore to give him a three-year term, to change voting in this particular area, some miniscule things which really you have to be some esoteric managerial expert to understand the significance of this thing, not of any consequence.”

During his initial backing of Shallow and Skerritt, Gonsalves was heavily critical of Cameron during his tenure and called for him to step down during his 2013-2019 stint. But after witnessing recent events, Gonsalves says he has found an appreciation for Cameron’s work.

“West Indies Cricket was doing much better under Dave than now, no question about it,” he said. “I believe that in the period since Dave has been out of office that Dave would have reflected sufficiently as to some of the downsides and I believe that he has a sufficiently creative mind to have addressed how he will handle some of these [issues].”

Although not commenting on whether he’d want to see Cameron run for president again come the next CWI election, Gonsalves says the Jamaican would be a better fit than Shallow and his executive.

“I have good conversations from time to time and he loves Cricket West Indies and he has a certain personality and he has a creative mind,” he said. “And I don’t think that Dave even in his strongest set of language dealing with governments in Caribbean, and so on, that he has ever spoken about professionals in the manner in which the current leadership has spoken.”

Dr Kishore Shallow, Cricket West Indies president .

Former Cricket West Indies President Dave Cameron (Photo: Observer file)

Ralph Gonsalves (Photo: Joseph Wellington)

West Indies batsman Mikyle Louis misses a mighty heave to be bowled by Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood (not in picture) during the day/night third Test at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica, on July 13, 2025. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)