The Caribbean Pre­mier League of Crick­et (CPL) has com­plet­ed its 10th year and its im­pact con­tin­ues to be phe­nom­e­nal both on and off the field. The ten con­sec­u­tive years have been amaz­ing. Not even COVID-19 was able to pre­vent the event, al­beit with strict re­stric­tions.

The CPL con­tin­ues to pro­vide re­gion­al crick­eters with lu­cra­tive pay pack­ages. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, host coun­tries have ben­e­fit­ed from the pos­i­tive ef­fects of di­rect and in­di­rect sport tourism and the eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty re­lat­ed to host­ing a mega sport­ing event. Pro­mot­ed as the biggest par­ty in sport, it brings colour and vibe to crick­et. But even greater than that, it is the biggest re­gion­al event not on­ly in sport but just the biggest re­gion­al event full stop! How­ev­er, crit­ics, and un­be­knownst ob­servers have in­ten­tion­al­ly or un­in­ten­tion­al­ly at times failed to con­sid­er the pos­i­tive im­pact of the CPL out­side of crick­et.

Coun­tries are in­vit­ed to bid for the right to host match­es and as­sist the fran­chis­es. There­fore, the onus is on the re­spec­tive coun­tries to cap­i­talise on their in­vest­ments. It is for the coun­tries to make the best of this in­vest­ment. How­ev­er, there are coun­tries who have in­di­cat­ed that there is no com­mer­cial val­ue from the CPL, as with their ro­bust tourist in­dus­try, host­ing the CPL has noth­ing to add.

This, how­ev­er, is a short-sight­ed per­spec­tive, as the re­cent­ly con­clud­ed CPL showed the at­trib­ut­es of play around sport. It was not just to 12,000 peo­ple who filled the Queen's Park Oval, or the 18,000 who filled the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my in Trinidad, or even the 14,000 who filled the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um of Guyana that pro­vid­ed rev­enue. The full sta­dia, in fact, pro­vid­ed at­mos­phere, fer­vour, and ex­cel­lent pho­to op­por­tu­ni­ties for politi­cians and those seek­ing pub­lic ex­po­sure. The ma­jor ben­e­fi­cia­ries were those in­volved in ac­tiv­i­ties around the crick­et.

To start with, ven­dors both in and out­side of the sta­di­um, taxi dri­vers tak­ing peo­ple to games or to at­trac­tions, restau­ran­teurs, and hote­liers, all had a field day from St Kitts to St Lu­cia, Trinidad to Guyana. And this was not just from the over 200 per­sons di­rect­ly in­volved in the CPL: teams and of­fi­cials, or­gan­is­ers and mar­ket­ing staff of the CPL, tele­vi­sion pro­duc­tion crews and com­men­ta­tors, etc., but from the hordes of peo­ple who trav­elled for the crick­et.

There were not just lo­cal pa­trons but peo­ple from Eu­rope, North Amer­i­ca and oth­er Caribbean coun­tries who flocked to these venues. In­clud­ed were fran­chise own­ers, some of whom are wealthy busi­ness­peo­ple, Bol­ly­wood stars and per­sons with in­ter­est not on­ly in in­vest­ing in re­gion­al crick­et, but in the re­gion in gen­er­al. This was the fo­rum for them to en­joy crick­et and en­joy lo­cal hos­pi­tal­i­ty while ex­plor­ing their next busi­ness ven­ture or in­vest­ment.

Guyana grabbed the op­por­tu­ni­ty to or­gan­ise a spec­tac­u­lar fes­tive event around its leg of the CPL match­es, in­clu­sive of the knock­out and fi­nal stages. Guyana is a coun­try where op­ti­mism abounds amongst its cit­i­zens, pal­pa­ble when talk­ing to per­sons in all spheres of life. The idea and ex­e­cu­tion of the crick­et fes­ti­val was sheer bril­liance. Not on­ly did they in­vest in host­ing two weeks of crick­et, but there was al­so a grand gala din­ner com­mem­o­rat­ing the 10th year of the CPL, and sep­a­rate con­certs fea­tur­ing the likes of Beres Ham­mond, Spice, Machel Mon­tano and chut­ney so­ca artists. The night­ly food fairs, night mar­kets and com­mer­cial ac­tiv­i­ty ex­ceed­ed the norm.

In fact, for the month of Sep­tem­ber, there was a 91% in­crease in vis­i­tor ar­rivals, with over 23,000 per­sons en­ter­ing the coun­try. The vast ma­jor­i­ty were vis­it­ing for the crick­et and ac­tiv­i­ties around crick­et. Not on­ly were all ho­tel rooms filled, but an or­gan­ised sys­tem where­by per­sons could stay in lo­cal homes was suc­cess­ful. Not on­ly did George­town ben­e­fit, but ex­cur­sions in­to the in­te­ri­or of Guyana pro­vid­ed in­come to those who trans­port­ed and those who host­ed the hordes of vis­i­tors who paid hand­some­ly for these ex­cur­sions.

The en­er­getic Pres­i­dent, Mo­hammed Ir­faan Ali, was the mas­ter­mind be­hind Guyana host­ing the fi­nal leg of the CPL and the crick­et car­ni­val. He at­tend­ed all of the evening match­es and sat among the crowd in the stands as op­posed to oc­cu­py­ing the com­fort of the Pres­i­den­tial Suite. He so­cialised at venues in George­town, en­sur­ing that all his cit­i­zens and vis­i­tors had per­son­al ac­cess to him. The way Guyana con­duct­ed it­self dur­ing the two weeks of crick­et begs the ques­tion now as to what was and is go­ing through the minds of those who shun in­vest­ment in the CPL.

The four coun­tries that host­ed CPL match­es this year would have ex­pe­ri­enced fi­nan­cial ben­e­fits from in­creased ar­rivals and their re­lat­ed eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty. With side shows and oth­er events put on pri­vate­ly (even by crick­eters), the ben­e­fits would have ex­ceed­ed the norm. Guyana piv­ot­ed strate­gi­cal­ly to cap­i­talise on all the pos­si­ble ben­e­fits of host­ing a sport­ing event. The West In­dies missed this op­por­tu­ni­ty in 2007 when it host­ed the ICC World Cup. How­ev­er, the ap­proach tak­en by Guyana can serve as a mod­el for all fu­ture host coun­tries.

The ben­e­fits of such in­vest­ment are both tan­gi­ble and in­tan­gi­ble. Hav­ing spo­ken to the tan­gi­ble, na­tion­al­ism, pa­tri­o­tism, and even feel­ings of self-im­por­tance and self-worth are best brought out by war and sport. We are in a re­gion where we do not be­lieve in the for­mer but have not ful­ly ex­ploit­ed the lat­ter. Which politi­cian would not want to be in the mid­dle of a full sta­di­um where every­one is cheer­ing and hav­ing a good time? Not on­ly is there a good vibe, but there is enor­mous good­will amongst all in­volved. There is na­tion­al ex­po­sure for those watch­ing on tele­vi­sion or wit­ness­ing events on the ground. The in­flux of a mix of peo­ple with di­verse back­grounds can on­ly en­hance the host­ing coun­try. For those play­ers and vis­i­tors from over­seas, it sells the idea of re­turn­ing for a pro­longed hol­i­day. For those in­volved in busi­ness, it pro­vides an op­por­tu­ni­ty to in­tro­duce them to op­por­tu­ni­ties on the ground. Where­as on­ly some of the in­tan­gi­ble ben­e­fits are men­tioned, many more re­main uniden­ti­fied.

The op­por­tu­ni­ties around sport must be seized. The 10th edi­tion of the CPL has pro­vid­ed a tem­plate for ef­fec­tive and ef­fi­cient or­gan­i­sa­tion for fu­ture host coun­tries. One hopes that all coun­tries ac­knowl­edge the ben­e­fits that can be gained. It is not just about mon­ey made in sport, but mon­ey made around sport.

Dr Ak­shai Mans­ingh is Dean, Fac­ul­ty of Sport, The UWI. He can be reached at ak­shai.mans­ingh@uwi.edu