An attempt has been made to sabotage Trinidad and Tobago hosting the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 cricket tournament, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley has revealed.
Rowley said that a person impersonated the CMO (Chief Medical Officer) office and sent inaccurate correspondence to CPL’s officials purported to be from the Government.
The Minister of Sport Shamfa Cudjoe has since stepped in and done damage control, and has communicated with CPL officials on what Government’s position is on regarding the hosting of the tournament.
Rowley made the disclosure on Monday as he addressed the media briefing from the Diplomatic Centre at St Ann’s.
“Would you believe that some person here in Trinidad and Tobago appears to have impersonated the CMO’s office and have sent to the CPL contrary information causing this whole matter to be questioned as to whether the CPL would be held in Trinidad and Tobago?
Information purporting to come from the CMO has been fed to persons in the CPL subsequent to the Government’s position which now caused the Minister of Sport to be talking to the CPL to confirm what the Government’s position was”, Rowley said.
“There are people in this country who are prepared to undermine the national efforts so that the country would fail so that they may succeed in their ambitions and their agenda.
I maintain that I have confidence in the vast majority of people in this country as being decent, right-thinking citizens who understand reason and understand that in all things we do, we are all in this thing together.
And that is why today we will continue to bring as many people home as quickly as we can, while protecting the gains that we have made in securing the lives and livelihood of the people of Trinidad and Tobago”, said the Prime Minister.
On Friday, Rowley defended the Government’s decision to grant exemptions for some 250 persons affiliated with the CPL T20 cricket tournament to enter Trinidad and Tobago, while leaving thousands of nationals who want to return outside.
Responding to criticisms that the borders were being opened to allow the CPL personnel in, while T&T citizens were being kept out, the Prime Minister had said the CPL players were not coming from places where their country’s borders are closed.
He said that there was a need to keep T&T’s economy alive and the cricket tournament was a means to “economic resurgence”.
Rowley said that the State paid over $12 million per month to keep the staffs jobs at hotels while they were closed during Covid-19 coronavirus lock down restrictions.
He said $8 million per month were paid to 400 workers at the Hyatt Regency, $2.6 million per month for approximately 400 workers, and $1.3 million per month to some 200 employees of the Magdelena Grand Beach & Golf Resort at Tobago. (Daily Express)
