Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley is pushing back against Cricket West Indies, noting that her country will not sit and wait for the regional body to bring cricket back to the Kensington Oval.
Prime Minister Mia Mottley says Barbados is charting its own course, and the fight for the CPL Finals is proof of that.
Her comments come after CWI confirmed Kensington Oval will be shut out of all regional and international cricket in 2026 – meaning no Tests, no ODIs, and no T20Is.
The home series against Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Pakistan, running from June to August, will be split across Jamaica, Antigua, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana.
PM Mottley said the writing was on the wall, and Barbados acted. She added that landing the CPL Finals at Kensington was a deliberate move, one aimed at expanding opportunities for Bajans, not only as players, but as umpires and across the wider cricket ecosystem.
The decision has drawn sharp criticism at home. Both the Barbados Cricket Association President Calvin Hope and the Chairman of Kensington Oval Management Incorporated, have spoken out against CWI’s move, as debate grows over the future of cricket at the ground known simply as The Mecca.