By Akeem Greene
Cricket West Indies (CWI) President, Ricky Skerritt, has confirmed that the large Asian diaspora in the United States of America is seen a significant financial gain for the 2024 World T20, which will be co-hosted by the Caribbean and the USA.
Skerritt responded to a question from News Room Sport on Wednesday as it regards how big an influence that group could be to the finances, reflected on the 2019 tour of India where they played Twenty20 International matches in Florida to sold-out crowds.
“When we hosted India in 2019, we had jam-packed crowds and they were prepared to pay top dollars and it is a big factor as millions of Asians around the world want to see their stars play and that brings the commercial factor,” he expressed.
Apart from the finances, Skerritt felt the immigrant influence can grow the game from the grassroot level, which brings greater competition over time in the Americas.
The CWI President explained that one of the advantages of becoming a host country is the opportunity to grow income, and he reflected based on his understanding, it was “significantly” done in 2007 when the Caribbean hosted the Men’s 50-over World Cup.
Since then, the Caribbean has hosted the World T20 in 2010, Women’s World T20 in 2018, and will host the Under-19 World Cup in early 2022.
“Whoever is hosting the event, there is a financial advantage, I can’t reveal any figures to you at this point in time but we have a rough idea, and any men’s event is very commercially viable and it is highly desired.”
The revenue comes in a different form since the stadium is ‘bought’ temporarily to sell concessions and hospitality and ICC, who owns the tournament, pays a host fee.
Skerritt indicated that the host nations in the Caribbean are not pre-selected and there will be a bidding process, however, it was noted that the Caribbean will host two thirds of the matches and USA one third.
“It is not pre-selected and yes there will be a process to choose the venues that we usually do. You could spread it [venues] all around or shrink it dependent on cost factors. The more venues you have the higher your cost, but these are things that will be worked out.”
With regards to the final, the President did not want to prematurely predict such, but indicated that it is “very likely” that the opening/closing will be split between the Caribbean and the USA.
Over a year ago, CWI and USA Cricket partnered to make the bid successful.
