Dear Editor,
A few weeks ago I wrote a piece advocating that star batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul should be named a sports ambassador and given a diplomatic passport, so he would not have to queue up at
the airport, etc. His counterparts in Trinidad and Tobago and even the small islands enjoy this privilege. I gather also that Roger Harper who is a former Test player and now a coach for a team participating in the CPL tournament enjoys the privilege.
Well I have more news for the Guyana Government: St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves last week accorded 15 individuals, including five sports personalities, three singers, one dramatist/writer and two pannists the privilege of carrying a diplomatic passport and wearing the title of cultural or sports ambassador of St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Dr Gonsalves was the man who should take credit for solving the cricket dispute between the players and the WICB last week following the disgraceful behaviour of the cricketers in India in which the BCCI threatened to sue the WICB for US$42 million. The St Vincent leader is a keen sportsman. He was responsible also for solving the dispute between Chris Gayle and the WICB a few years ago.
The Guyana authorities should take a page out of Gonsalves’ book and issue a diplomatic
passport to Shiv, a man who has done so much for West Indies cricket.
On this note maybe the selectors should include him in the ODI squad for South Africa.
He will be the backbone of the team and the batsmen will bat around him. The team needs someone who
can stay for 50 overs, and the others can bat around him. Maybe if Shiv had been in India with the ODI squad be might have been able to persuade them not to take such drastic action.
Yours faithfully,
Oscar Ramjeet
