linkST LUCIA’S general election is tomorrow.
So what does that have to do with West Indies cricket or, more precisely, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB)?
The answer is, quite a lot.
The WICB’s two foremost administrators, president Julian Hunte and chief executive Ernest Hilaire, are both in the hierarchy of the St Lucia Labour Party (SLP) that is seeking to regain the government it lost to the United Workers’ Party (UWP) four years ago.
Hunte is SLP chairman, Hilaire a prominent strategist. Both, Hilaire especially, have been in the vanguard of a campaign as typically acrimonious as they are everywhere else in the Caribbean.
Hilaire took leave from his WICB post to join the fray. From all reports, he has been predictably caustic in his criticism of the UWP and, more especially, Prime Minister Stephenson King at public meetings. King was, he reportedly declared, incapable of being prime minister.
It is typical of the cut and thrust of any election campaign but, in this case, was delivered by a politician who is also chief executive of an organization that needs the cooperation of all the relevant governments.
Hunte and Hilaire were also closely involved in the last election four years ago, Hunte as candidate (losing) and Hilaire his campaign manager.
What if they don't win again?
