CEO of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Pete Russell has welcomed the return of one of the world’s premier Twenty20 cricket tournaments and has underlined the need for continued sustainability while calling for greater support from some regional governments, such as Jamaica’s, as the island again misses out on hosting opportunities.

St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago will host matches at the August 31 to September 30 tournament, which gets underway today with defending champions St Kitts and Nevis Patriots facing Jamaica Tallawahs at Warner Park in Basseterre.

Sabina Park hosted five Tallawahs matches in 2019 while the COVID-affected instalments of the CPL in 2020 and 2021 were held behind closed doors in Trinidad and Tobago and St Kitts and Nevis, respectively. In 2018, Jamaica only hosted two of the Tallawahs’ 10 matches during the season.

Russell, who says he hopes to see Jamaica again hosting matches in the near future, noted that the host nations for this year’s competition were chosen as a result of the positive economic value and support that they provide for the franchises at all levels.

“I think governments always have difficult decisions. They only have a certain amount of budget, and where they can put it. I mean, I make no bones about it but local franchises need the support from the local governments for them to be successful because if they don’t have that, it’s very difficult to make a franchise work. We always make the argument that at the end of the day, we do look to create economic benefits. So there’s a pay-off and it’s not just a one-way ticket, so to speak,” Russell told the Jamaica Observer.

“But we’ve had fantastic support from here in St Kitts, St Lucia, Trinidad and Guyana, so you know, to be blunt, that’s the reason we’re playing in those four countries. Because we know that, actually, it makes sense for us to do that and you get the support of the local government and that makes a huge amount of difference on all sorts of levels, whether it’s logistic, whether it’s financial, or just supporting you from a marketing perspective. So, yes, it is important and we always love coming to Jamaica but it has to work economically for the team,” added Russell.

“We will this year in St Kitts and St Lucia spend probably close to US$1.2 to US$1.3 million just in terms of setting the games up. Now, if you’re not getting that back as a local franchise, whether it’s ticket sales or sponsorship or other forms of support, that’s your loss right there. So, you know, franchise cricket is a business so they have to weigh up what they can afford to spend and what they can’t, so that’s just the harsh reality of it. We’ll be back playing in Jamaica at some stage, it’s just a case of, as I said, making sure that the franchise can balance the books in a way that makes sense for them because they’ve invested a huge amount of money in the franchise,” Russell explained.

He underlined the sustainability of the teams, and competition as a whole, as a main focus of his organisation going forward as they embark on their tenth campaign.

It’s incredibly challenging because, you know, if you look at the IPL, India has over a billion people and they have TV deals that you can only dream of, in terms of the numbers. We’re in the Caribbean, we have seven million people across the region, you’re not going to get the TV revenues that all these other leagues have.

“So you’ve got to make sure that the league is sustainable, and we always try and do that by making sure we do have some reference to India, but it’s still very much a Caribbean tournament. I think it is just making sure that it is a tournament the players want to play in, fans want to watch and hopefully, sponsors want to invest in, and if we do those three things right, one should follow the other, but I think it’s got a great future so we just have to keep going and innovating and making sure that we don’t overplay our hand,” said Russell.

Looking ahead to this year’s tournament, Russell was excited for the return of spectators inside the venue and is expecting a close competition between the six franchises.

“I’m so excited to get going. We’re again going to be treated to some fantastic cricket. If you look at the teams they are very evenly matched, some great players come into play as always, so it’s going to be a fantastic tournament.

“We’re delighted that fans are going to be allowed back to come and watch the games. I think they’re going to see probably the most competitive CPL we’ve ever seen. There’s no standout team right now; I mean, you could say [Trinbago] have some of the Galacticos but actually, I think that the others are very well-balanced. I think they’ve all selected well and there are certainly no weak teams, so I think it’s going to be highly competitive,” Russell assessed.

The Rovman Powell-led Tallawahs will face the Patriots at 6:00 pm today before going up against the Amazon Warriors on Saturday at 9:00 am in their first two assignments.

St Lucia Kings, Trinbago Knight Riders and Barbados Royals complete the roster.