Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley has again defended Government’s decision to borrow money to renovate Kensington Oval ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup.
Speaking during Monday’s unveiling of the
statue of former Barbados and West Indies fast bowler Sir Charles Griffith at
Kensington Oval, Mottley said the $50 million borrowed from the Afreximbank to
improve the facilities at ‘The Mecca’ was warranted.
“Maybe people question this Government’s
commitment to the refurbishing of the third most iconic cricket ground in the
entire world, not in the region, not in the Americas, but on the planet Earth.
“And for us as a people to have the legacy that we have in cricket, and to have this wonderful iconic ground available to us and not to take care of it, reminds me of lessons in the Bible that if I were to preach them and speak to them now, Sir Wes (Hall) would swear that I am following in his footsteps as a reverend,” the Prime Minister said.
“Suffice to say that our commitment was not
only and is not only to the refurbishment of the ground, but we have been very careful to commit
ourselves to ensuring that the young Barbadian and West Indian cricketers can
have access to the best technology…
“This notion we must have raw talent and ignore the other aspects of our business and technology such that others then have a significant advantage on us cannot be tolerated because we know better and we must do better…” she added.
Mottley said her focus was also on seeing the
resurgence of West Indies cricket.
She admitted that she was anxiously awaiting an upcoming meeting of CARICOM heads in Trinidad to discuss the various issues that are confronting regional cricket.
“I look forward to that meeting because there
is one other major factor that we must confront as a region. When we speak about the Bridgetown Initiative people think it is fundamentally about
financing, but it is about financing in the context of being unequally yoked as small nations and small populations.
“Little did we know that in spite of being world champions for decades, in spite of having the longest run, little did we know that we would now be handicapped by a set of global rules and power structures that deliberately disadvantage what we can earn such that the West Indies find it possible to have a proper Test series in Australia when we last was there,” Mottley said.
She maintained that the West Indies needed to
command a legitimate right at the table to create opportunities for its players in all formats of the sport.
By David Harris
