BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Chairman of the CARICOM sub-committee on cricket, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, has thrown his support behind the West Indies’ proposed tour of England once all the risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic are managed.

Cricket West Indies (CWI) is still in discussion with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) over the three-Test series which is now tentatively set to begin on July 8 in the UK, following a postponement as a result of the spread of COVID-19 which curtailed sports across the world.

“I am not an expert in epidemiology [but] once Cricket West Indies is properly advised by the relevant epidemiologists and other persons dealing with the science, in England and also from the Caribbean… laying out the facts and all the circumstances and what are the protocols to be applied… I have absolutely no problem with that at all,” he said.

Prime Minister Gonsalves, whose country has seen just 18 cases since March 11 – with 14 of the patients having fully recovered and the other four in the later stages of their recovery –, stressed that it was important that the protocols being put in place for the England tour be scrutinized by the CWI leadership as well as journalists, and be made public.

“…Because we must know what the protocols are – they are not a secret – so that we can send the young men who represent the senior West Indies team that they can go off in cricket battle,” he said.