Editorial | Owners must oust Shallow

Sadly, Donovan Bennett, the president of the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA), can’t be relied on to prime the moral levers for Kishore Shallow to vacate the presidency of Cricket West Indies (CWI).

Dr Bennett has no ethical concerns, and sees no potential for conflicts of interest in Dr Shallow continuing as CWI president while serving as a member of the Cabinet of St Vincent and the Grenadines and as that country’s minister for tourism and maritime affairs.

Hopefully, Dr Bennett’s, and presumably the JCA’s, posture is not universal among the dozen shareholder directors of CWI. Perhaps at least three are sufficiently perturbed by Dr Shallow’s absence of self-awareness to invoke 25 of CWI’s Articles of the Association to convene a special meeting of the organisation to remove him.

A special resolution to this effect, allowable under clause 50.11 of the articles (“The Full Members may, by a special resolution passed at a special meeting, remove a President or a Vice-President from office”), would require the votes of at least eight, or two-thirds, of the shareholder directors.

The moral and ethical issues in the Shallow affair are so grave that the territorial boards should feel themselves compelled to take this step, as unprecedented and difficult as it may be.

CWI is the body that administers cricket in the Caribbean. But it is no mere sporting body, because, in this region, primarily in the former British colonies of the West Indies, cricket is not merely a sport. It has been as much a political instrument, social leveller and development marker, as much as it is a game. And it has been a symbol of Caribbean integration and a proxy of sorts for the region’s capacities.

So, it is not without reason that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), an economic and functional cooperation organisation of Caribbean states, maintains a prime ministers’ committee on cricket. Or that Caribbean citizens pine over the regional team’s decline from its nearly two decades of global ascendancy.

When Dr Shallow entered the leadership of CWI in 2019 as Ricky Skerritt’s vice-president, the duo’s declared mission was to return the West Indies to the top tier of the global game after decades of stagnation followed by dysfunction during Dave Cameron’s presidency.

NEW MORAL CENTRE

Another implied, if not always frontally declared, goal was to give CWI a new moral centre. For, implicit in many of the debates around West Indies cricket was that the team’s three-decades-long downward spiral was also reflective of the moral and ethical decline of cricket’s management at all levels.

It is against this backdrop that many people are deeply disappointed at Dr Shallow’s decision to cling to the CWI presidency after his appointment as a minister, following the victory of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in St Vincent’s general election last month, and his own election to parliament.

Dr Shallow says there is no conflict, what is important is his ability to successfully juggle his various portfolios. In any event, he argues, other persons who were involved in politics served in leadership roles in West Indies cricket.

Dr Bennett agrees. “There may be a conflict of interest with other persons but, with this particular gentleman, there won’t be a conflict of interest, and I don’t see Cricket West Indies in any way,” he said.

This, of course, is tortured logic, for which we offer Dr Bennett the cure of Lord Lord Hewart’s dictum, which remains unimpeachable after more than 100 years of application to matters of conflicts of interest - and not only in judicial proceedings.

“It is not merely of some importance but is of fundamental importance that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done,” Justice Hewart said, adding: “... Nothing is to be done which creates even a suspicion that there has been an improper interference with the course of justice.”

As this newspaper asked before, which skin will Dr Shallow wear if issues relative to, say cricket, and the well-being of Vincentian tourism arise, or when matters relating to CWI’s governance arise at Cabinet meetings? What if his prime minister, Godwin Friday, is placed on, and/or becomes chairman of, CARICOM’s cricket committee?

It is not good enough to say, without context, that others who have served as directors of CWI or its predecessor bodies were involved in politics. None, at least not in modern times, were its president while in government.

And, with respect to other countries, who wants their governance structures to emulate Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or unreformed Zimbabwe?

Neither is it sufficient for Dr Shallow to promise not to contest for the CWI presidency again, after his current tenure ends in over two years. This is not about his talents. It is about what is right and decent.

That is why the owners and board members of CWI, on behalf of West Indian cricket stakeholders, to whom they owe a duty of care, have a moral obligation to invoke Articles 25 and 50.11 of CWI’s Articles of Association. It would also be an appreciation of cricket as a public good.