Last week Sunday, the Guyana Amazon Warriors finally overcame the label of ‘always the bridesmaid never the bride’ when they emerged as the winners of the eleventh edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 Final, after stumbling at the final hurdle on five occasions in the first seven years of the tournament. This victory should have been one of many fronts, but alas, due to incompetent planning and myopic protocol, it will just be one on the field of play.
The long overdue triumph was met with joyous celebration by the thousands of delirious cricket fans all over the country, some of whom carried the party too far, and had the embarrassing results of their over imbibing posted on social media for all and sundry to view.
Meanwhile, the Amazon Warriors’ overpowering performances in the second play-off game against the Jamaica Tallawahs (after failing miserably in the first against the Trinbago Knight Riders), and in the Final against the Knight Riders, were met with unfounded allegations of match tampering on social media platforms, thus making their victory slightly bittersweet.
On Wednesday, 22nd September, the International Cricket Council (ICC) issued a press release stating that it had “confirmed three major USA cities: Dallas, Miami and New York, as the venues for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.
“The USA is set to host the T20 World Cup for the first time, with Grand Prairie in Dallas, Broward County in Florida and Nassau County in New York chosen as the venues for the grand event.
“USA and West Indies were selected as co-hosts for the global tournament back in November 2021, when the ICC Board awarded them the hosting rights. The venues were chosen following an extensive evaluation of several options.”
A media release from Cricket West Indies (CWI) two days later read, in part, “Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad & Tobago will be the seven venues in the Caribbean that will co-host the 2024 men’s T20 World Cup in addition to the three cities shortlisted by ICC earlier this week.”
According to ICC Chief Executive, Geoff Allardice, it will be the “biggest ICC Men’s T20 World Cup ever staged” with 20 teams playing a total of 55 matches across the ten venues between 4th June and 30th June.
While the ICC media release did not list which of the venues would be hosting the knockout matches, the cricket website, ESPNcricinfo stated it had learnt that Guyana, Barbados and T&T were primed to stage the Super Eights, and final, …. and the Brian Lara Stadium (Tarouba, Trinidad) was the frontrunner to host the final along with Kensington Oval in Barbados.” ESPNcricinfo also noted that of the Caribbean cricketing territories, only Jamaica, Grenada, and St Kitts and Nevis, had not entered bids to host World Cup matches.
The 2024 T20 World Cup will be the third occasion an ICC Men’s World Cup is being held in the West Indies. In 2007, the region hosted the ninth ODI Cricket World Cup, with Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Guyana, St Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago, hosting six matches each, while Jamaica, St Lucia and Barbados staged seven games apiece. In 2010, the West Indies was the venue for the third T20 World Cup, with Barbados, Guyana and St Lucia serving as the hosts for all 27 matches. In the first instance, the semi-finals were played in Jamaica and St Lucia, with the honour of holding the final bestowed on Barbados. For the second tournament, Beausejour Stadium at Gros Islet in St Lucia hosted both semi-finals, with the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados being chosen, once again, for the final.
As the hosts, for the last two seasons, and next year’s CPL Finals, Guyana was in an excellent position to present a strong case to be the favoured choice of venue to host the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Final. Yet, ESPNcricinfo has suggested – these kinds of pronouncements on reputable websites are either from ‘very reliable sources’ or deliberate leaks – that the Brian Lara Stadium and the Kensington Oval are the frontrunners for the 2024 final. This bungled opportunity can be laid squarely at our own feet, no one else.
Several factors, all of our own making, have eased us out of the conversation of hosting the final. As this column pointed out two weeks ago, (A lick and a promise, SN, 20th September), on the day before the fifth and final phase of the 2023 CPL kicked off in Guyana, maintenance work was being done on the stadium’s washrooms. At the same time, workmen were filling potholes on the road designated to facilitate the fast exodus of post-game vehicular traffic from the stadium. Poor preparations will not cut it at this level.
International organisations such as the IOC, FIFA and the ICC have site inspection committees which visit long in advance of scheduled events, and no doubt the ICC team filed a very poor report card after reviewing the facilities at the National Stadium at Providence, eliminating any chance of us hosting the 2024 World Cup final. The hopeless attempt at organising a ‘Cricket Carnival’ celebration parade the day after the final, and the ensuing chaos and confusion on the city streets on a working day, would have also been duly noted by the ICC and CWI groups which were monitoring the management of the CPL matches here.
Our final failing grade relates to the current government’s continuing ineptitude when it comes to diplomacy and protocol, as has been noted in several previous columns (most recently, Protocol, 9th, November, 2022). The Sunday Stabroek issue of 24th September – the day of the CPL Final – carried a release from the Office of the President under the caption “President, First Lady host breakfast for Amazon Warriors.” The accompanying photograph showed President Irfaan Ali, First Lady Arya Ali, and 25-odd guests seated around a large rectangular arrangement of tables at State House preparing to eat. Part of the photo caption read, “The players, who were led by their manager, former Guyanese first-class captain Leon Johnson and their current Captain Imran Tahir were accompanied by their families.
“In brief remarks, President Ali extended gratitude to the players and told them that Guyana and all of their supporters are proud of the team’s performance, a release from the Office of the President said. He also wished them well in the final against the Trinbago Knight Riders this evening.
“The players and management were also presented with Presidential coins.
“ [Trinidad and Tobago] Soca entertainer Machel Montano was also at the event.”
All Guyanese should have shuddered in disbelief and then bowed their heads in shame upon reading of this stunning breach of protocol, which, after it had taken place, was proudly dispatched as a press release from the Office of the President. There we were, hosting an international sporting event, attracting massive attention from around the world, and our president opted to host a breakfast for one of the teams in the final? The home side, at that? And to add salt to the wound, an invitation was extended to one of the leading musical artistes from the country of the team snubbed at the breakfast?
After the final, local fans ranted on social media about the Knight Riders showing poor sportsmanship for immediately removing their runner-up medals from around their necks after President Ali had placed them there at the presentation ceremony. Did anyone enquire or even wonder if that was the Knight Riders’ response to the breakfast invitation snub?
Any slim chance of our hosting the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Final dissipated into thin smoke on the staging of that breakfast event at State House. The ICC Planning Committee was probably pondering, ‘What if we schedule the final for Guyana, and South Africa and India are the finalists, will this government only invite India to breakfast?’
The damage done cannot be repaired under any circumstances. The government has demonstrated that it has learnt absolutely nothing from the Charrandass Persaud-in-India Affair and continues to keep its head buried in the sand where the subject of protocol is concerned.
