The sum of about US$1 million in world cup ticket sales claimed by the Guyana Government from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is in dispute, the board says.
Asked why the WICB has not paid over the money to the government from the gate tickets to the CWC 2007 matches held in Guyana during March/April last year, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr Frank Anthony told Stabroek News yesterday that “we are not sure why they have withheld US$1.072 million.”
Ticket sales totalled some US$2.372 million but the sum of US$1.3 million had been paid over in two installments, he said.
Anthony surmised that even though they had not been given any reason why the gate receipts were withheld, Guyana was claiming from the WICB the sum of US$825,000 for services provided while the WICB was claiming US$467,000 from Guyana for services provided during the CWC 2007 event.
He contended that even if Guyana owes the WICB US$467,000 and that was deducted from the ticketing revenue, the WICB still has the remainder of the money from the ticket sales and it still has to look at Guyana’s other claim for services provided.
There was back and forth discussion on the matter and he had expected that the matter would have been resolved when the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the now disbanded ICC CWC 2007 West Indies Inc, Chris Dehring visited Guyana earlier this year.
Contacted yesterday, WICB Corporate Services Manager Tony Deyal told Stabroek News from Antigua that following the closure of the offices of the ICC CWC West Indies Inc at the end of 2007, the WICB settled all Guyana’s claims that were approved by the ICC CWC West Indies Inc. Deyal said that the sums that were not paid were claims that were in dispute even after protracted negotiations.
Though he would not say why the sums being claimed by Guyana were in dispute, he said that the WICB wants the issue to be resolved amicably since Guyana is a very important part of the regional sporting body and the regional and international cricketing community.
He said that the host venue agreement (HVA) entered into between Guyana and the WICB, which represented the ICC CWC 2007 West Indies Inc, made provisions for resolving such problems through an arbitral process.
Meanwhile, Dr Anthony also told Stabroek News yesterday that he has written a letter to the WICB on the outstanding amounts making a claim and was awaiting a response from the board.
Dr Anthony said that he has indicated to the WICB that, “We have suggested in the letter that if we can’t settle, we would go to the next step which would be the arbitration process. But one way or the other we would like it settled,” he said, adding that he thinks that in due course those matters would be settled.
Dr Anthony, who served as Chairman of the disbanded Local Organising Committee, which was mandated to organise and execute the programme for the hosting of the CWC 2007 matches held in Guyana last March and April, said that Guyana and Barbados were owed monies by the WICB.
He did not say why the monies were owed and Deyal did not say why the claims were disputed.
Dr Anthony said that the monies to be paid out were gate proceeds from the Six Super Eight matches held at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence. He said that the proceeds from the gates were about US$2.3 million. In two payments, he said, the government received close to US$1 million last year.
Asked whether the outstanding sum was US$1.3M, Dr Anthony said, “They owe us about US$1 million. That is what we would like to have.”
At a press conference on Tuesday, President Bharrat Jagdeo told the media that the government may sue the WICB if it does not receive over US$1 million in proceeds owed from the gate proceeds.
Stating that the WICB was “sitting on our money” and it was “what Guyana had earned,” he said, “They have our money and they are not paying us. We have written to them and if they do not pay us we are going to file a lawsuit against them.”
It is believed that the money was withheld on account of expenses incurred when the now defunct ICC CWC West Indies Inc had to pay an international contractor to complete overlay works for the staging of the event. This included the installation of the turnstiles and the accreditation and media centres among other things.
According to the HVA, the WICB Revenue Distribution Formula made provision for all CWC 2007 Inc’s profits to be for the benefit of the WICB, which would then distribute revenue and profits at its sole discretion in accordance with the formula. And the Local Organising Committee (Guyana government) agreed to abide with this agreement.
The agreement also said that the CWC 2007 Inc or the WICB shall be entitled (but not obliged) at any time or times upon the provision of written notice to the LOC to withhold the payment of any amount due, or, which may be due, to the LOC in terms of the WICB Revenue Distribution Formula, or otherwise, the “Retained Amount”, in the event that the LOC failed to comply with its obligations set out in the agreement, pending final settlement of any and all claims.
Meanwhile, the WICB Revenue Distribution Formula stated that in terms of ticket sales, the LOC was entitled to retain 100% of the revenue derived from the sale of tickets to the public in relation to the official ticketed events staged in the various host venues.
It was agreed by the parties that the formula would have been amended from time to time. Amendments were to be agreed to by all parties.
