(CMC) – Jamaica Cricket Association president Billy Heaven believes the agreement between Cricket West Indies and the Caribbean Premier League needs to be revisited in order to ensure enhanced returns on investment for the region.
Heaven, also a CWI director, said the agreement struck 12 years ago ahead of the inaugural CPL season was “disadvantageous to Jamaica” and other regional countries as it did not provide significant enough value.
The administrator was speaking here recently amid public outcry over the pullout of the Jamaica Tallawahs franchise, which left the country without a CPL presence since the tournament was founded.
“It (the agreement) is disadvantageous to Jamaica. It is prejudicial to cricket in Jamaica, and that agreement, in the first instance, spans 30 years,” the Observer newspaper quoted Heaven as saying at an event here.
“It came into being in 2012, and when you look at the return from that, in the first year, the agreement brings US$1.375 million (JA$211.8 million), and at the end of 30 years, it is US$1.75 million.
“There’s no increase whatsoever, even to keep pace with the inflationary effect.
“So, we have to go back to look at that agreement to make it more workable for the region, including Jamaica.”
Even with the Tallawahs franchise present, Jamaica has endured a strained relationship with the tournament in recent years and has not hosted a single match since 2019.
And in re-selling the franchise to the league, owner Kris Persaud cited a lack of government support as one of the major factors behind the decision.
However, Heaven said while he was “disappointed” Jamaicans would be unable to watch CPL cricket live, he questioned the role of CPL in actual cricket development across the region.
“CPL and all these franchises are exceptional, but they speak to entertainment value per se,” he continued.
“They do not address the element of development in the way that you want to develop your product called cricket. CPL does not do that, nor do they put back monies into the development of cricket in the territories.”
The absence of CPL action in Jamaica has drawn criticism from global Twenty20 star Andre Russell and West Indies T20 captain Rovman Powell, with both Jamaicans urging talks between the government and CWI.
In defending the government’s actions, Sports Minister Olivia Grange said it had been necessary to balance investment in the Tallawahs franchise with support for other sporting disciplines.
“We have sought to provide special support to the Tallawahs at the level that our funds may permit,” Grange was quoted as saying at the same event.
“The Tallawahs require more than we can provide, but I’m sure the Tallawahs and their existence were not dependent on the Government of Jamaica to bankroll them.
“But in order to give them more, we would have to cut funding to the more than 40 national sports federations, such as football, netball, and track and field, which depend on the government to run their programmes and have been requesting additional funds that we are challenged to provide.”
