ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – Crick­et West In­dies (CWI) pres­i­dent Dr Kishore Shal­low said the 2024 T20 World Cup, which was co-host­ed by the West In­dies, brought “un­par­al­leled suc­cess” to the re­gion in gen­er­at­ing US$1.66 bil­lion.

The tour­na­ment, which was al­so co-host­ed by the USA from June 1 to 29, was the ninth edi­tion and saw 20 teams com­pete in 55 match­es across six venues in the Caribbean and the USA.

It was the sec­ond time the West In­dies host­ed the pres­ti­gious com­pe­ti­tion, hav­ing pre­vi­ous­ly done so in 2010.

Ac­cord­ing to an in­de­pen­dent Eco­nom­ic Im­pact As­sess­ment con­duct­ed by the ICC and Niel­son Sports, al­most every sec­tor ben­e­fit­ed from the fi­nan­cial im­pact.

Bar­ba­dos, which host­ed group match­es, as well as fix­tures in the Su­per 8 and the fi­nal, led the way by gen­er­at­ing US$426.4 mil­lion, fol­lowed by St Vin­cent and the Grenadines (US$224.8 mil­lion), Saint Lu­cia (US$132.5 mil­lion), An­tigua & Bar­bu­da (US$114 mil­lion), Guyana (US$76.7 mil­lion) and Trinidad and To­ba­go (US$68.9 mil­lion).

In his ad­dress, Dr Shal­low said the sta­tis­tics showed the im­por­tance of sports to the re­gion and the need for prop­er in­fra­struc­ture and world class fa­cil­i­ties.

“No doubt this tour­na­ment was more than just a sport­ing event.

“It was a trans­for­ma­tive mo­ment for our re­gion, so­lid­i­fy­ing the Caribbean’s po­si­tion not on­ly as the heart­beat of the world of crick­et, but al­so as a hub for eco­nom­ic growth, tourism and glob­al in­vest­ment,” Dr Shal­low, who was re­cent­ly elect­ed un­op­posed for his sec­ond con­sec­u­tive term said.

“The in­de­pen­dent Eco­nom­ic Im­pact As­sess­ment con­duct­ed by the ICC and Niel­son Sports paints a com­pelling pic­ture. This World Cup in­ject­ed an as­ton­ish­ing US$1.66 bil­lion in­to the economies of the host na­tions, di­rect­ly ben­e­fit­ting busi­ness­es, work­ers and com­mu­ni­ties across the Caribbean.

“In an era where eco­nom­ic re­silience is more crit­i­cal than ever, this event served as a bea­con of pos­si­bil­i­ty, show­cas­ing the pow­er of sports, the pow­er of crick­et, to dri­ve tan­gi­ble, last­ing eco­nom­ic progress,” he fur­ther added.

Dr Shal­low dis­closed that US$174.3 mil­lion was gen­er­at­ed through ac­com­mo­da­tion; US$116.1 mil­lion was gen­er­at­ed by food and bev­er­age sales; re­tail and tourism gen­er­at­ed US$133.7 mil­lion and trans­porta­tion and flights gen­er­at­ed US$124.5 mil­lion.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the mul­ti­pli­er ef­fect was es­ti­mat­ed at US$537.4 mil­lion gen­er­at­ed in sec­ondary spend­ing while fu­ture tourism im­pact was pro­ject­ed at US$36.6 mil­lion

Dr Shal­low said the time had come for coun­tries in the re­gion to look for al­ter­na­tive ways of at­tract­ing rev­enue and in­vest­ments.

“For far too long our economies have been over re­liant on tra­di­tion­al in­dus­tries and we have to seek av­enues for di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion.

“This World Cup brought di­rect eco­nom­ic re­lief to thou­sands of peo­ple, with jobs cre­at­ed across mul­ti­ple in­dus­tries…”Dr Shal­low said.

“This tour­na­ment has pro­vid­ed a blue­print for how sports can be lever­aged as a strate­gic eco­nom­ic tool.”

CMC