ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – November’s Women’s Twenty20 World Cup is expected to provide a much-needed financial windfall for the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association.
ABCA president, Leon Rodney, said the historic stand-alone November 9-24 ICC tournament would see his organisation benefit from ticket sales, concessionaire fees and suite rentals for the semi-finals and final carded for Vivian Richards Cricket Ground.
“I am sure that I am at liberty to say that because it is already written and signed off on,” Rodney told the Observer newspaper here.
“We will be sharing from the gate receipts and obviously we will also be benefiting from the vendors as we usually do. We will also benefit from the renting of suites and things like that.”
The preliminaries of the T20 World Cup will be staged in Guyana and St Lucia, with the semi-finals set for November 22 and the final two days later.
Defending champions West Indies headline Group A which also includes England, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh while Group B will comprise 2016 losing finalists Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan and Ireland.
ICC official warm-up matches will also be hosted at Coolidge Cricket Ground here prior to the tournament, and Rodney said those matches would also be an exciting time in the country.
“We have matches here at the [Coolidge Cricket Ground] on [November] 3rd, 4th and 7th in terms of warm-up matches,” he explained.
“At some point we will have at least eight international women’s teams here in Antigua and then they will depart for Guyana and St. Lucia and then they come back here to play the semi-finals and finals on the 22nd and the 24th.”