Ms Carrot- Melissa McLeish

St. John’s Antigua- The Ministry of Agriculture has added a “sweet treat” to the line-up of entertainment for the upcoming Caribbean Week of Agriculture.

It’s the hosting of the region’s first ever Ms Agriculture Pageant, slated for October 14 at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Grounds.

The pageant, according to organisers, will be one with a difference, integrating pageantry with agriculture.

Member of the show’s organising committee Morville Benjamin said six delegates will be competing for the inaugural title of Ms Agriculture.

“The pageant is celebrating the theme of Caribbean Week of Agriculture, which is ‘Celebrating Youth & Gender in Caribbean Agriculture; Each Endeavoring’,” Benjamin said. “It was conceptualised about a month ago, to coincide with the week of activities.”

The delegates – all residing on island – will be competing in five segments including Introductory Speech, Talent, Swimwear, Cultural Dress and Interview.

Ms Pineapple – Amanda Tappin

Ms Sweet Pepper -Arlette Chastanet

They are Ms Carrot – Melissa McLeish, Ms Sweet Potatoes – Kimer Peter, Ms Watermelon – Sharee Philip, Ms Pineapple – Amanda Tappin, Ms Julie Mango – J’nore Smith and Ms Sweet Pepper -Arlette Chastanet.

The pageant is scheduled to begin at 8 pm sharp and Benjamin is hopeful that the event will be a permanent staple on the regional agriculture  week calendar.

“I am hoping that it will be continued and this year’s winner can go on to represent Antigua & Barbuda at the next hosting of Caribbean Week of Agriculture,” Benjamin said.

Tickets for the event are $10.

The public will get a chance to see the contestants in person tomorrow when they parade the streets of St John’s in a motorcade beginning at 2pm, from the Ministry of Culture and ending on St Mary’s Street.

The  show is just one of a few activities on the entertainment list for the country’s hosting of Caribbean Week of Agriculture, which runs from the October 12 to 20.

The entertainment runs nightly from Monday to Friday next week.

Ms Julie Mango – J’nore Smith

Among the performers at the stadium will be Three Cylinder, National Dance Theater, Kyode Erasto, National Youth Choir, Tammy, TKO and Laurena, Shocking Vibration, Claudette “CP” Peters, Ricardo Dru, Burning Flames, Cheezekake Factory, Hard Knaxx, Revo Band, Red Hot and Tizzy and El-A-Kru.

Ras Bobby believes “nature” offers a treatment for all ills

St. John’s Antigua- An encounter with Ras Bobby is a little like going to church, or having a catch-up with old friends. It leaves you feeling balanced, spiritually nourished and totally at peace with the world.

The aging Rastafarian, with locks as long as his salt ‘n’ pepper beard, exudes harmony and aplomb. He has a generous smile and eyes that sparkle with warmth and just a hint of mischief.

Bobby chooses his words carefully. A favourite in his broad lexicon is “providence”. He uses it once when he divulges how he came to meet the Honduran herbologist who would change his life. And again when relating his first serendipitous brush with ‘Back to Eden’, a book that inspired him to follow a lifestyle devoid of anything not created by “Him Most High”.

“I call myself a naturopathic healer,” he imparts.

“I was born in Curacao, I grew up in Dominica, and I now live in St Thomas. So I see myself as an African-Caribbean citizen,” he says with a broad grin.

His herbal teaching dates back more than three decades. He does have some formal training through a naturopathic school but most of his studies are as organic as Bobby himself.

“I was taught hands-on by a mountain man in Honduras. The art of natural healing is acquired easier in the bush; you can’t learn herbology in the classroom.

“He brought me to the hills, identified the herbs and showed me how to make products from them.”

As chairman of the Health and Nutrition Committee of the Caribbean, Ras Bobby is tasked with raising public awareness of the need to follow a natural lifestyle.

“Nature is the answer to all our problems,” he says simply. “We are absolutely from nature. Nature has an answer for everything. And eventually it will be found. The solution to most problems is a holistic approach. What we eat, drink, even think about – we need to recognise that healing is a faith process.

“It’s mind over matter – and the spirit of all.”

For more than a decade Bobby has been imparting his wisdom to audiences comprising the curious, the eager, the hopeful, even, occasionally, the sceptical.

His latest seminar is aimed at surviving the ills of the 21^st century. Tonight at 7:30 pm in Perry Bay’s Multi-Purpose Centre, he will once again deliver his message to the local population.

Organised in conjunction with the RasFreeman Foundation for Unification of Rastafari, participants will be shown how to produce their own food, direct from their kitchen. Growing and preparing sprouts lies at the heart of his teaching.

Visitors will also have the chance to sign up for personal health consultations and buy intriguing products from Ras Bobby’s herbal collection.

Most come in a powder or liquid firm and are ingested as tea or mixed with water. One of his most popular herb and root products is ‘cascara sagrada’ or ‘sacred bark’. This colon cleanser is made from the bark of a tree and added to distilled water and vegetable glycerin.

Then there’s garlic syrup which is used to treat coughs, colds, ‘flu, asthma, bronchitis, and high blood pressure.

He uses lemongrass to strengthen the immune system, vervine to cleanse the blood and neem bush for diabetes and indigestion. Ras Bobby believes infertility can be overcome with a combination of stinging nettles, corn silk and mahogany tree bark, while local ‘cojo’ is even credited with curing cancer.

Modern medicine is in direct contravention with Bobby’s promulgations.

“Sometimes people give the impression that herbology is not scientific but we think modern medicine is not scientific.”

He points to the pervasive side effects of prescription medicine, such as suicidal thoughts triggered by anti-depressants.

Bobby admits the battle with authorities can be “frustrating”. Asked for the reason he thinks herbology is not entrenched in mainstream medicine, he’s unequivocal in his response.

“Capitalism,” he says firmly. “We don’t mind people making money, we just wish they’d do it with a little more conscience.”

Salt and “eating flesh” are two of modern living’s biggest offenders.

“Meat is just rotting flesh. Human beings are natural vegetarians, from the shape of our teeth to the length of our colon, and the digestive juices in our stomach. Carnivores’ stomach juices can liquefy bone, for example, ours cannot.”

Ethics also plays a part.

“Why should you kill an animal and expect to get life from it? We know they feel pain and carry emotions just like us. They are flesh and blood. They are also children of His Majesty.”

Any more advice for people looking to live a cleaner life?

“I would advise people to use a wide variety of herbs, fruit and veg. Also, good quality grains like millet, quinoa and buckwheat. That means no white flour or white rice – they are dangerous, mind-altering and off-balancing.”

He promotes fasting too, as the best way to eliminate toxins from the body. ‘Virgin’ fasters should start by drinking nothing but coconut water, herb tea, fruit or vegetable juice, one day a week, from sunrise to sunset. The fast should be broken with a raw veg salad which uses less energy to digest than bread.

But there’s one thing Bobby advocates more than anything. Breathing. The conscious kind.

“Don’t take breathing for granted. Practise deep breathing every single day. Flex the body at the same time to open up the chakras. It unites every cell in the body, removes toxins and helps raise consciousness.”

Entry to tonight’s seminar is a $20 on-the-door fee. Vegetarian snacks will also be provided.

“Our seminars have always been very successful,” Bobby adds. “Our effectiveness has to do with the realisation that we bring truth, genuine truth. And love. We come with a lot of love.”

Less than a month after the court squashed an attempt by Lewis to bring an injunction against the turf club – asking the court to bar further racing at the facility and to have all horses and equipment belonging to the club and its affiliates removed from the property – the business man has stopped the turf club from doing further work at the facility without his permission.

Lewis, who currently holds the lease for the disputed lands, said he stopped the turf club from digging a trench and laying water pipes since the work was done without his authorisation.

The businessman said Public Works fulfilled his request to the department for some help in removing the material it had placed on the site and his attorney has also written to the Development Control Authority (DCA) to have the pipes removed from the facility.

“I’m not willing to let nothing slide now. I’m saying what they are doing now is out of order and I’m not going to let it slide.

“They are digging out a trench – a water way – putting in big jar pipes so that they can build a stable over those jar pipes. If they want peace and for us to work together for the good of horse racing why don’t they come to me and let us sit down and reason?” Lewis said.

“So I asked public works to remove all of the material that they put there to assist them and public works moved all of the material.

“I went to the DCA to ask the DCA to stop them and I believe the DCA has stopped them from carrying on any work there.”

Meanwhile, Lewis said he is not disheartened by the court’s decision not to grant him the injunction against the turf club since he is still the rightful owner of the property.

“That didn’t bother me because you must remember when you are in business you are going to get knocked down a little bit and they feel so good because the judge did not award me the injunction.

“But after looking at all of the papers on what was presented to the court, I think the judge was right, based on the way it was presented to the judge,” Lewis said.

“So that’s not a problem. That doesn’t mean I lost my property. What is mine is mine.”

Lewis also maintained that it is still his intention to erect a top class international racetrack at Cassada Gardens.

http://www.camden.nsw.gov.au

ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Childcare providers have had it with irresponsible parents and guardians who constantly pick up their children late without giving prior notice and who are often callous and nonchalant when confronted.

Ten out of 13 childcare centres reported having problems with late pickup and finding themselves being taken advantage of by parents who seem happier to pay the small fines imposed for tardiness rather than pick up their children on time.

Two nights ago, a daycare provider at Michael’s Mount reported an “appalling” situation where a toddler was left at her centre for more than three hours after the pickup deadline – prompting an OBSERVER Media survey on the issues plaguing the centres. The child was eventually picked up after several radio announcements alerted relatives.

“It’s rude and irresponsible. I can see it happening once or twice due to circumstances beyond one’s control. But a lot of times we have problems with parents picking up children late and I think it is getting more prevalent. I don’t quite understand why,” a Crosbies childcare service provider said.

Earla Musgrave-Esdaille, who has headed the Early Childhood Unit for the past eight years, said she has received numerous reports of parents’ negligence and the effects such could have on the very young.

“A child left in daycare could feel abandoned and hurt and regardless of how we see it as adults, they do understand when they are being neglected,” Esdaille said.

The early childhood educator, however, noted that some children would prefer to remain in the care of the service provider if the home did not provide the kind of love and attention the child craves.

“When children are not treated well at home and they get better care at the centre, they cry to go home and it tells you they are aware of the difference,” she said.

The childcare specialist of Crosbies said she has often been accommodating and lenient, but the more she bends backwards, the more she finds parents taking advantage of the centre, many times without even an apology or an excuse.

While her current batch of parents “have been good so far,” she said lenience in the past left her caring for a child until 8:30 pm although the pickup deadline passed at 5:30 pm.

“I’m here seven and eight o’clock with the children and the parents sometimes call me and I’m not comfortable with it, but things are so bad economically wise I try to help them out. They cannot afford to pay someone else to pick up their children or care for their children after daycare closes,” the Crosbies teacher said.

What she said she finds ridiculous is parents calling to say they’ll be late from work then they show up in gym clothing or fresh from the hairdresser or nail technician.

Esdaille, the Senior Education Officer responsible for Early Childhood Education, said in order to curb the practice the authorities plan to deal with the situation. She suggested that punitive action be taken against parents who virtually abandon their child in daycare facilities.

(More in today’s Daily OBSERVER)

In a rare philosophical mood, my girlfriend went on to explain that, sometimes, it is by being exposed to something or someone else that a person can see, much more clearly, the shortcomings in his own life; that he is given an insight into what, exactly, he has been missing.

Fast-forward to a couple days ago when a guy I know asked if I had never said “bad-minded prayers.”  Now, I was taught that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and so I know better than to do any such thing; hence, I said no, I never had.  Well, he was not shy to admit that, out of covetousness, he had sent up such a prayer or two; and he set out his rationale quite … rationally, I guess … for doing so.

In much the same way a person can admire a nice vehicle, determine that he wants to acquire it, and set out to buy it from the owner, he explained, a feller could want another man’s woman and resolve to get her.  Especially if that woman is being undervalued or underappreciated, then there is even more reason, more incentive, to take her away, he said.  For, in his opinion, there would be no market, no form of commerce at all, if people didn’t want things that they didn’t have.

Ironically, as we rode in his car discussing the matter, a song came on, and he played back the CD so I could have a proper listen.  It was a Garth Brooks number called “Unanswered Prayers,” and told the story of a man who runs into the girl he had loved and prayed earnestly to marry while they were in high school.  But, in the years that have passed, the magic has faded; she doesn’t look so good; and they can’t find anything to talk about.  And so, as they part, he looks at the woman he did marry and realizes that, sometimes, not getting what you pray for really is the best thing, after all.

See: That is exactly why I believe it’s not wise to pray bad-minded prayers, even for a seemingly good reason: Because, as our parents used to caution: “See me and live with me are two different things.”  That is not to say that the grass on the other side might not, in fact, taste sweeter, as well as look greener, since, obviously, it often does, as several couples you and I know would testify… .  But the thing that gives me pause is: How can you know for sure?  And wouldn’t it be a great shame if, after having left your own brownish pasture, you discover that the grass looks greener only because it’s growing over a soak-way or a septic tank?

Still, the feller wasn’t fazed by my argument or by Garth and his epiphany.  He continued to insist that hardly anybody ends up with the person he or she begins with, anyway; and it is wanting somebody else’s person that is responsible for that.

Grudgingly, I have to admit that he’s right – sort of.  When I was a girl, a minister’s wife warned me to always keep things covered up, because boys can’t help being aroused by what they see.  Well, Sisters, if we were to take that argument beyond the merely sexual, I think we would all agree that seeing something – a diamond tennis bracelet in a display window; the latest smart phone advertised on TV; or a buttery leather bag on a co-worker’s shoulder – creates in us the desire to have that thing.  And I guess it’s no stretch of the imagination, then, to understand that a feller could go to a man’s home for dinner, or to help him tile a floor, and after seeing the way she moves, looks, laughs, cooks, begin wanting to have his friend’s woman, as well.

Naturally, some sense of decency should – and usually does – prevail; and most men would make a concerted effort not to covet their neighbour’s wife.  But, whereas a man, fairly easily, could go downtown and buy himself an ox or an ass, or build himself a similar or better house than his friend’s, it’s not likely he can find himself a woman just like the one who served him dinner a few hours ago at his pardner’s house. What then is he to do but say bad-minded prayers?

Before you rush to judgment, as I did, initially, let’s look at the case another way:  How many of you, knowing that your granny is old and ailing, would pray that the Lord takes her soon?  How many of you, knowing that old and ailing granny has you named in her will as the beneficiary of her considerable estate, would ask the Lord to heal and spare her for many years to come?  Ok, then. It’s called self-interest and you reason the guilt away by telling yourself that the old lady has had a long and fruitful life and that she wouldn’t want to “live like that” now, anyway; so, it’s best that she be called to her just reward.  What, then, is so different, so wrong, in a feller praying that a couple calls it quits and that the woman finds comfort in his loving arms?

And, be honest, Sisters, don’t we sometimes do the same thing?  Haven’t we, too, been guilty of wishing, however secretly, for some woman to be found lacking, so her man can leave and, hopefully, we can get him; for a wife to get her green card and emigrate so her husband can really “see” us now?   After all, what do we tell ourselves when we borrow a girlfriend’s bling ring and don’t bother to return it? “Well, it looks better on me, anyhow… . “

Maybe it’s the company I keep, but I’ve found that the women doing the groaning are all competent, diligent, not-afraid-of-work sisters who are committed to their relationships.  In general, their fellers are the type you would call “nice,” meaning they are amiable, sociable, decent guys whom you would expect to make “good” man material.  So, what on earth is it that keeps them from delivering?  Just what is wrong with these men?  Sisters, I think it’s … us.

Now, don’t bother to run and pick up two stones and bash me, because I am not blaming the victim here.  Rather, I am examining why it is some men find it so easy to victimize us.  For the past several years, I have been studying a curious phenomenon in Antigua: The way our men – born right here in these 108 square miles; with their navel strings buried in the dirt of Ottos Pasture, Newfield, Cassada Gardens, Old Road, Five Islands, or Ovals; and raised from child to man by mothers and grandmothers who sprang from the self-same soil – can find it so easy to work like Negroes, in order to get, to advance, and to keep women about whom they know virtually nothing.

You’ve seen them: Hustling in from Job No. 1 to grab a bite and, maybe, take a shower to wash away that first sweat before rushing off to Job No. 2.  Not even on the weekend do they allow themselves to take it easy; because they’ve got things to do, people to see, and places to go – all with the aim of keeping their imported woman (and sometimes her family) in the style in which they plan to grow accustomed.  And I’m talking about fellers who, when they were with their homegrown wives and women, didn’t even know where the washing-machine was located, never mind the paintbrush and ladder, and who, on the weekend, wouldn’t allow breeze to blow between them and ESPN.

There’s some deep psychology – or, should I say, pathology – going on here, Sisters. …

I made it my business to go beyond mere speculation and to ask a professional, who could appreciate that it was curiosity and not hostility that inspired my question, whether, as I perceived, the immigrant woman is more …. let’s say “dependent” than we are.  Simply put, she said yes; and she further agreed that at least two of our immigrant groups come from cultures that are highly paternalistic; where “the man” is looked up to and catered for, as the provider, the decision-maker, even the disciplinarian… .

Apparently, Sisters, our fellers like being made to feel they are the Big Cheese and will do anything for that accolade.  This, I guess, is why some of them can’t be bothered to knock stroke for us: Because we think we are Big Cheeses, too.  Think about it:  Not even those of us who grow up with a father, in the most traditional of households, think of the man we marry as our pappy. Unless we’re psychologically wounded, or plain lazy, we get into relationships expecting to be the man’s equal, his helpmeet, the other side of the same coin.  We have our ambitions –

whether to own a home, start a business, raise a family, or pursue higher education – and we go after them, expecting that our partner will hold up his end and, if necessary, help to carry ours. But we don’t expect the man simply to provide these things for us and we certainly don’t seek permission to go after them.

And that, it appears, is our downfall, Sisters.  For by showing our men how capable we are – of holding our place at the head of the class, or in securing that start-up loan, or by balancing our work lives with our child-rearing – we’re letting them see that we can get it done.  And while we want them alongside us, we don’t really need them there to make it happen.  Even in small matters, like grooming, we sneeringly wonder why a working woman would need a man for things like that. You see how we stupid? Fellers like this love being able to point to their accomplishment, their ownership, their ability to provide, when they see their woman step out with hair, nails and skin looking good. Why can’t we understand that our strength, our independence, our ability serves only to undermine their big-cheesedness?  It’s about them; not us, Girlfriend.

… When I was young I read a poem, the only lines of which I can remember are these, spoken by a little girl to a little boy after school: “I’m sorry that I spelt the word. I hate to go above you.  Because” – the brown eyes lower fell – “Because, you see, I love you!”  You know, I’ve often wondered what it was, or is, in me, that has made me recall those lines all these years later; how I knew, even as a child, that for a man to love a woman – well, some men – she has to let him believe he’s brighter, bigger, better than she is.  Just as I wonder now, as an adult, why I can’t do it… .

And it’s because so many of you can’t do it, either, that you’re facing what you are: A feller who works, yes, but can’t see his way – because you can.  Who has the talent, but not the ambition – because you have.  Who doesn’t carry his own weight – because you do.  …You want to make a man out of him?  Well, put down that blinking spelling book, Sister, or hand him over to an immigrant!

Melissa Rose was killed last night in a shooting outside her John Hughes home. Photo from her Facebook Profile.

St. John’s Antigua-UPDATE-

Police are questioning a man in connection with the homicide of a nineteen year old woman.

The man reportedly turned himself in to the cops this morning and he’s now being questioned over last night’s killing of Melissa Rose of John Hughes.

Police have not yet declared the man the prime suspect in the probe.

Rose had just arrived home and was talking to a male friend in a pickup when someone opened fire on them.

Relatives said she was struck in the left breast and died on the scene.

The shooting victim was the mother of an 11 month old daughter and last worked as a receptionist at Sandals Grande Resort.

Police say this is the country’s fourth homicide.

To say that we were astonished by the initial decision to charge the miners with murder is an understatement. For we, along with the entire world, watched with horror television replays of the brutal killings committed by the police last month.

The South African police had claimed self-defence, saying that the miners shot at them. Most of the miners, we were told, were armed with home-made clubs and machetes. However, the police claimed they recovered several handguns from the scene.

Our shock at the mass slaying, which revived memories of the actions of the evil apartheid government of the past, was eased somewhat when South African president Jacob Zuma ordered a judicial commission of inquiry which, we are told, is to report its findings to him by January next year.

However, when it was announced last week that the 270 miners arrested after the police killings were charged with murder under an apartheid-era law we were stunned.

That decision by the prosecutor rubbed salt into the wounds already opened by police action in a country where the majority were oppressed by the state in some of the worst ways imaginable for decades. And the fact that this old law is no longer in the constitution makes the state’s action more egregious.

We had expected better from a government that strongly opposed the inhumanity that its racist predecessors displayed to the majority people of South Africa, and, indeed, from a state which only last month was represented in Jamaica by its president, sharing with Jamaicans the significance of the 50th year of separation from colonial rule.

We are not here advocating that the government turns a blind eye to the week of violence and bloodshed that preceded what is now known as the “Marikana massacre.”

Those responsible for the killing of 10 people, among them two police officers who were hacked, and two mine security guards who were burned alive in their vehicle, need to be arrested, charged and placed before the courts.

However, the South African state should not have sunk to the level where it was accused of “a flagrant abuse of the criminal justice system in an effort to protect the police and/or politicians.”

Ms Jiba, we hold, has done the correct thing in reversing her decision to shift the blame for the killings from the police to the miners, even though she has not said what influenced the change.

We note, though, that she has insisted that other charges, among them public violence, illegal gathering and illegal possession of firearms, will not be dropped against the 270 miners.

Those cases, she said, were being postponed pending the final investigations and the findings of a commission of inquiry.

From this distance, it appears to us that Ms Jiba has put out a fire but has kept alight a wick that, if not extinguished, could result in an explosion.

The men and women who died in the long, bitter, fight against apartheid must now be rolling in their graves. (Jamaica Observer)

They have been working half days in a bid to limit the risk to health, while awaiting a move to a new building in St John’s.

The killer substance was first detected in February 2011, prompting the temporary measure.

The structure was deemed unsafe for workers by a safety report from the Antigua & Barbuda Fire Brigade’s Fire Prevention Unit study which highlighted several other serious issues.

Two floors in the Paul Aflak building on Redcliffe Street have been earmarked as the new home for the Ministry of Health but it has been awaiting retrofitting. Government’s chief architect Wesley James said this has since been put out for tender.

Contacted on Tuesday, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health Edson Joseph would only confirm that the current status continues and that a move is expected soon.

“I wouldn’t want to give a time (for the move) because based on other factors we couldn’t give a time,” Joseph said.

(More in today’s Daily OBSERVER)

Dr Ernest Hilaire

ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), Dr Ernest Hilaire, has named as his most rewarding moment at the helm of West Indies cricket, the launch of the Sagicor High Performance Centre.

Dr Hilaire, who is set to leave the job at the end of September, said the centre which is geared towards refining the skills and charting the way forward in the development of the best young cricketers in the region, is of grave importance to the development of young cricketers and the future of West Indies cricket on a whole.

“To have seen the first (batch) of players, to have seen the video, which was prepared about the great moments of West Indies cricket; to have listened to the speeches from Professor Beckles, the president and the CEO of Sagicor, and to have realised that this is something we have been toiling with for over six years and within a very short period of time we were able to get it going and I think that, in many ways, remain the highlight for me because I know deep down inside the importance of the HPC to West Indies cricket and what it can do,” he said.

The centre is based at the 3Ws Oval at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies in Barbados and the first groups of 15 young cricketers were selected from players across the region through nomination by their local cricket board.

In early August, the WICB promised to invest more in the Sagicor High Performance Centre after one of its first graduates performed impressively during the first Test match between West Indies and New Zealand in Antigua.

WICB President Julian Hunte said he is confident more graduates of the centre will emerge after opener Kieran Powell scored his maiden Test century in the first innings of the match.

The 22-year-old Leeward Islands left-hander scored 134 and 30 as West Indies defeated the visitors by nine wickets.

Dr Hilaire, who appeared on OBSERVER AM on Tuesday, also spoke on the Chris Gayle issue, saying that they could have “avoided all of that.”

“Most people don’t know, after the first meeting we had with Chris after he came back from the IPL, it was in Jamaica that there were actually two meetings; there was one with Chanderpaul who had himself made comments and Chris, and the Chanderpaul meeting ended within two hours and it was dealt with,” he said.

“The Chris one was the famous meeting where there was the incident with the chair and the then president of WIPA and it went on for an extended period. That meeting could have solved the problem immediately just like we did with the Chanderpaul matter, but yet, because of other influences involved, it went on and on and for me it was low because we could have avoided all of that,” Dr Hilaire said.

The administrator, who will take up the post of High Commissioner to London for St Lucia on October 1, said also there is a lot of work still to be done where the development of West Indies cricket is concerned.

“It’s never easy to leave West Indies cricket and as days count down, I still think of some of the things we need to do. I think we have come a long way and we have made some difficult decisions. I was, in a sense, brought in to lead the change and make some of these difficult decisions,” he said.

There is still a lot that can be done and you wish you probably had some more time to do a few things right, to get a few things corrected and to take on a couple of big projects which are about to unfold, but I think that in anything you do, you have to know when to move on to the next stage; and I had always told myself that I was going to give it my best shot for three years and that three-year period is coming to an end,” the CEO added.

Dr Hilaire, who holds a doctorate from the London School of Economics and degrees from University of the West Indies (UWI) and Cambridge, took over as WICB CEO in September 2009, replacing Donald Peters.

His tenure has been regarded as turbulent in several quarters, involving public spats with former West Indies Players Association chief Dinanath Ramnarine and contentious handling of issues relating to senior players, most notably Chris Gayle.

Dr Hilaire also served as chief executive of Cricket World Cup St Lucia Inc, when the Caribbean hosted the ICC showpiece five years ago.