Dear Editor,
The time is 5 PM on this day of the 6th December 2024. For those of you who know me, you will know that I have a gripe. It is the day of the finals of the Global Super League T20, (henceforth GSL), a tournament which was promised to us to be the replacement of the Champions League T20. Now, for those unaware, the Champions League T20 was intended to determine which franchise and which league was the top league of them all. It was modelled after the UEFA Champions League that is extremely popular in football (soccer).
Now I will not bore the readers with the history of the tournament but what I will say is that the GSL suffered its first stumbling block when the top teams and leagues could not participate, for reasons which remain undisclosed, though understandable given the league heavy schedule that franchises have to keep. This should have been the hurdle that should have stopped the league, for 2024 at least, but the Government of Guyana decided to persevere. This is where we have the issues.
First of all, in a franchise league tournament, with 27 slots available (4 international players per franchise plus 11 in Guyana Amazon Warriors (GAW)) only 5 Guyanese were able to benefit from playing in this tournament. No offense to the ones who were able to gain selection but where is the benefit for the Guyanese players? The emerging talents? The little boy who dreams of striking the ball like our beloved “Hetty”, Motie and Shepherd? It does not do anything but keep their dreams as exactly that, a dream.
Secondly, the GSL and the President announced that the GSL’s first match between Guyana Amazon Warriors and Lahore Qalanders have garnered a viewership of 4.2 million tuning in to watch, which is true, but with an asterisk next to it. It was being broadcasted from the GSL Pages on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, as well as the President’s Facebook page and the CPL Facebook pages. Is this a fair view count, Editor? Is that really the truth, even if the figure is true? Who is covering these costs? The public needs to know!
My take is this, they should have worked with the ICC and the BCCI, Cricket Australia and the ECB on the way forward towards resuscitating the Champions League T20, ensuring that the CPL winner would go on to play in the main draw of the tournament instead of some qualifications draw that took place in the later years of the CL T20. If they wanted more GAW action, their best bet would have been sending the team to the Abu Dhabi Global T10 which clashed with the GSL. And if they wanted to invest the money in Guyanese cricket, they could have used that money to professionalize the 1st Division leagues in Guyana, and together with their academies, make it the top cricket destination in the Caribbean and South America (an untapped market wink wink).
So tonight, I will sip my dubius concoction, watch the finals of the GSL, contested by a severely depleted Rangpur Riders, and a 3rd string “Victoria” team (only 3 players actually represented the side in State County Cricket) and moan some more as we basically gift USD 1 million dollars of development money to boards who recently gave our West Indies team a good cut…..
Sincerely,
Amir Khan
Cricket Fan
