Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony says he is excited that Guyana has been chosen as a franchise country for the inaugural Caribbean Premier League T20 tournament(CPL) which gets underway in a few months’ time.
Dr. Anthony was speaking to Stabroek Sport in an invited comment following Tuesday night’s launch of the event at the Country Club, Sandy Lane Hotel, St James, Barbados.
Dr. Anthony, along with Tourism Minister Irfaan Ali, Chairman of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) for cricket, Clive Lloyd and Consul General, Michael Brotherson, comprised Guyana’s delegation to the event.
“We’re extremely excited because this version of the game is quite popular around the world and I think a lot of people would recognize that it’s not only about the cricket, people want entertainment as well,” he said.
According to Dr. Anthony, Guyana is eager to show the organisers that they are interested in the new tournament because of the numerous relationships that can be developed.
“We want to be in relationships and that’s why we thought it was very important that we show our presence here because we want the organisers to know from the inception that we, as a country, we are interested in this and that we would like to see this relationship develop and grow because of all the benefits,” said Dr. Anthony.
The CPLT20, a new franchise-based type tournament, has replaced the previous format run by the Stanford Organization and the West Indies Cricket Board which were country-based formats.
Dr. Anthony spoke of the difference between the two formats.
“We’ve seen what has happened in cricket. We’ve seen what has happened in other sports where it’s shorter, more entertaining and people must come out and enjoy themselves and what is good about this model and is different from other models that were tried in that the previous model like the Stanford tournament, was based in one location while this model contemplates going to different countries which is a big difference and I think that by doing so it is also helping to spread the benefits of the game,” he said.
Spin-off benefits
Dr Anthony was also enthusiastic about the spin-off benefits of the tournament which will be run from July 29 to August 26 this year and although the franchises have not yet been identified, the names of the six franchise players were announced on Tuesday night.
While Trinidad and Tobago have three franchise players in Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo; Jamaica two in Marlon Samuels and Chris Gayle and St Lucia one in West Indies skipper Darren Sammy, Guyana which reached the final of the WICB T20 tournament last month does not have a franchise player.
Despite that, Dr. Anthony feels that the benefits of the CPLT20 tournament are many.
“So one, it’s about us developing a world class product where the whole globe would know about us and know about our cricket. So that’s advantageous to us. It would bring tourists to us; it would bring economic benefits to the region; it would help us to develop our cricket in our individual countries. For a long time now we’ve been trying to professionalize our cricket where our cricketers can be paid a salary. “This will happen with this type of tournament they can expect an annual income out of the actual tournaments and then I am sure whatever is made, some of what is being made, the West Indies Cricket Board might be able to use some of that money to develop the game.
“So I think when you look at the holistic model, it’s a really beneficial one and we really hope that the model will be given a chance to work. I know to the Caribbean people, cricket is like a religion and therefore I think they have chosen wisely and what we have to do is make sure that it is properly supported. When you are developing a product from the start it will take some time but once the support is there, once the encouragement is there I think the people who are organizing it would want to stay with it and make sure that it is a fully developed product and it is to the benefit of everybody.
Asked whether the country will be able to get past the present issues facing the sport in Guyana in time for the staging of the tournament, Dr. Anthony said he thought so.
“I am very optimistic. I’ve been chairing the parliamentary sub committee on cricket and as you know the ruling from the state is basically that we should have a piece of legislation, a new constitution and bring a long term solution to the impasse. We’ve done that. We’ve taken the piece of legislation to parliament, tabled it. The opposition asked `can we get that thing to a Select Committee’.
“I said I don’t have a problem because we don’t want it to emerge as something we are trying to do by ourselves. And we took it to the Select Committee and we are sitting at that Select Committee.”
Dr. Anthony said that they have once more invited comments from the various stakeholders.
“There are people who can come in and talk to us again and we’ll go through it and make sure that we have a law that everybody can feel comfortable with.
“Some people felt that there was some ulterior motive that we were trying to do. Everybody is sitting at the table and helping us to craft it. So that you don’t leave feeling that there is anything that is amiss and that’s what we’re trying to do.
“So I’m very, very optimistic. It’s taking longer than expected but I rather risk that than we don’t have consensus. Because sometimes democracy is a time-consuming business and if we can take a little time so that everybody can feel comfortable, we can bring that piece of legislation and pass it.”
