‘Jamaica not seeing economic value of CPL’- Operations Director Michael Hall

By Avenash Ramzan

[email protected]

Operations Director of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Michael Hall has outlined the reason behind Jamaica not being a host nation over the last few years of the League, highlighting a lack of economic value, cited by authorities there, as the reason.

Hall, speaking on the Mason and Guest radio show in Barbados, pointed out that Jamaican authorities have “rebuffed all advances by both the League and the franchise” to have matches on the island.

“Jamaica has not been a host for the Caribbean Premier League in the last two years. 2020 was obviously not possible- it was the pandemic year- when we played it in Trinidad. In 2021, while the pandemic lingered, we played it entirely in St. Kitts,” Hall explained.

“But they (Jamaica) did not meet the criteria to host games in 2022, nor did they do so in 2023…and they have rebuffed all advances by both the League and the franchise on the basis that they’re not seeing the economic value that the CPL brings, in spite of all of the data that’s being presented to them.”

CPL CEO hopeful of games returning

Chief Executive Officer of the CPL Pete Russell, in an exclusive interview with News Room Sport in late September, indicated that dialogue will continue with Jamaican authorities, as the hope is to have games return there.

“We had quite an in-depth presentation with them back in January which gave them a fairly clear proposal as to how we thought it would work and could work. We haven’t necessarily had feedback on that. Hopefully, at the end of this tournament we will engage again to see where they want to go with cricket.”

“Let’s wait a see. I’m hopeful we would get a deal done.”

Success on the road, but Kings skipper wants home leg  

The lack of games in Jamaica has essentially meant Jamaica Tallawahs have had to play all their games in recent tournaments at ‘away venues.’

Despite not enjoying that home support, the Tallawahs have reaped success in the last two seasons, winning the tournament in 2022 and making it to the playoff this year.

Tallawahs captain Brandon King, speaking ahead of the playoff matches this year, expressed hope that the situation can be different in 2024 and the franchise can enjoy home advantage like the other five franchises did this season.

“I think there are many reasons why I would like to have a home leg, obviously the support being the main thing. We have a lot of Jamaican players as well, who would be familiar with the conditions, so we will have a certain level of home advantage,” King highlighted.

“There are many reasons and I’m hoping that next year we would have a home leg.”

No 2024 T20 World Cup games either

The 2024 T20 World Cup will be hosted in the Caribbean and the USA, and notably Jamaica did not submit an official bid to host games, because it had to “pay attention to the cost-and-benefit analysis” as a consequence of “limited resources” on the island.

The Jamaica Observer quoted Sports Minister Olivia Grange as saying that “it wasn’t an easy decision” but after considering “different permutations”, the government felt that Jamaica’s cost of hosting World Cup matches would far exceed any potential benefits.

“We had been considering the cost and source of funding of nearly half a billion dollars to host a few games in Jamaica,” Grange said.

“In our cost/benefit analysis with stakeholders, we also considered the economic, social and development impact, including the potential tourism-related impact and attendant industry benefits using year-over-year economic modelling, reconciled against current tourism performance.

“It was a robust exercise in which we considered different permutations, including the option not to bid.”

The International Cricket Council has confirmed Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, and St. Vincent and The Grenadines as the seven Caribbean venues hosting matches during the T20 World Cup from June 4-20.

The USA is also set to co-host the event for the first time, with Grand Prairie in Dallas, Broward County in Florida, and Nassau County in New York being host venues.