Cricket takes over CARICOM Summit

And at the end of "play" regional leaders appointed two Prime Ministers to mediate the ongoing dispute between the West Indies Players’ Association and the West Indies Cricket board.

St Lucia Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony together with Grenada colleague Dr Keith Mitchell were appointed as the two-man team to mediate in the row which threatens to see a third-string West Indies team going to Sri Lanka to fulfil an International Cricket Council scheduled two-Test series.

The cricket impasse dominated the meeting of the CARICOM Summit yesterday, and it ended with leaders attending the conference agreeing that the matter must be referred for arbitration. This impasse stems from the contentious Claus 5 which deals with Match/Tour contracts, and whether players can enter individual contracts while representing the Digicel-sponsored West Indies team.

Regional heads were forced to focus away from two other pressing matters in the region, crime and energy.

St Kitts Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas said the view was that the matter at the heart of the discrimant must be referred to arbitration.

PM Douglas said the meeting agreed that West Indies cricket must not become an associated institution, similar to the University of the West Indies (UWI).

PM’s Dr Anthony and Dr Mitchell are expected to make an immediate approach to the West Indies Cricket Board on the matter.

But this approach will be somewhat affected by the departure of Dr Mitchell to China. He left yesterday for an official visit.