World T20 2024: Sport Minister dissatisfied with lack of ‘big ticket’ matches in Guyana

Guyana will host six matches at the upcoming World T20 in June- five group matches and semi-final one- at the National Stadium, Providence.

However, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Charles Ramson Jr. indicated on Friday that they would have preferred to host more ‘big ticket’ matches to attract more persons to the country, given the investment to host the global tournament.

West Indies will play two matches in Guyana against Associate nations, while New Zealand against Afghanistan is probably the other ‘big match’ outside of the semi-final.

“It is not the number of matches I am not satisfied with,” the Minister stated at a press conference to reflect on the accomplishments of the ministry in 2023.

“I am not satisfied with the teams based on the groups that were assigned to Guyana.”

“When the government looks to get for the country an international tournament, you want the big ticket games coming to the country, and if you don’t get all the big ticket games, you still want a few so that persons from around the world will look and say ‘I want to go and see those games.”

The Minister highlighted the major cricket nations like India, Pakistan and Australia are missing, with the majority of their games being played in the United States of America.

On paper, there is the perceived lack of quality in the West Indies matches in Guyana, given they are against Papua New Guinea and Uganda.

The Sport Minister added, “We have to compete on the market share for cricket with the USA, and so it is not just about the number of games. We knew in advance what were the likely outcomes if we were to succeed in the number of likely games we would get.

“ICC has to be cognisant of the fact that we are small territories [and] these types of events make a big impact to the country in many ways- some quantifiable, some non-quantifiable.”

Upgrading Providence

While not disclosing the cost for the ongoing upgrades to the National Stadium for the hosting of the event in June, the Minister did indicate that there is a checklist of requirements, highlighting that the modernisation of the dressing rooms is one of the improvements.

However, he noted that government’s investment into the facility to host the Caribbean Premier League in 2023 has been beneficial.

However, there is still further work to be completed.

Built for the Men’s 50-Over World Cup in 2007, the facility has positioned Guyana as the lone territory in the Caribbean to host all of the International Cricket Council events held in the region.

The others are the Men’s World T20 (2010), Women’s World T20 (2018) and Under-19 World Cup (2022).