Dwight Sampson
Sunday, May 7, 2017
Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Hon. Gaston Brown abruptly left the 38th Summit of CARICOM leaders currently taking place in Grenada, and returned to Antigua & Barbuda early Wednesday morning.
Sources in Grenada said Antigua & Barbuda's leader left the meeting following statements made by the incoming Chairman of CARICOM, Grenada’s Prime Minister Dr. the RT. Hon Keith Mitchell, regarding the current state of affairs to do with West Indies Cricket and LIAT.
When contacted to confirm if Prime Minister Browne had indeed left the meeting, Director General of Communication in Antigua, Maurice Merchant said; “The prime minister is indeed back on the island to address matters of State.”
However, less than an hour later, in a statement issued to all media houses in Antigua, PM Browne expressed his disgust over statements made by who he referred to as a “Caribbean head”.
While he never mentioned who the ‘Caribbean head was, from all indications, his statement was pointing to Grenada’s Prime Minister Keith Mitchell.
Browne spoke scathingly of his fellow CARICOM Head, PM MItchell, saying that the governance of West Indies Cricket “appears to be an evocative romanticism of a particular Caribbean head.”
He further went on to say that “Antigua and Barbuda as a matter of principle does not interfere with the internal affairs of institutions and governments that are governed by democratically elected officials.”
While delivering his remarks at the opening of the conference mere hours before in Grenada, Prime Minister Mitchell said; “It is, therefore, greatly disheartening to me, and several other colleague heads, that after CARICOM had taken common positions to assist in addressing the crisis of West Indies cricket, certain member governments thereafter publicly adopted different positions."
That statement, from all indication, was taken offensively by his counterpart PM Browne.
In recent times, both Prime Ministers Brown of Antigua and Skerrit of Dominica publicly spoke out against the position of CARICOM regarding West Indies Cricket, which was addressed directly by Prime Minister Mitchell in his remarks on Tuesday.
