With India and England set to tour the Caribbean next year, Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) President Dr Donovan Bennett says the Government must make a serious effort to ensure the two cricketing powerhouses play at Sabina Park.

Although not officially announced by the ICC or the respective cricket boards, the West Indies are expected to host the Indians next June where they will play two tests, three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and five T20s. England are scheduled to arrive next December to battle the Caribbean men in five T20s in preparation of the 2028 Twenty20 (T20) World Cup.

India’s last visit to the region was in the summer of 2023 while England last toured in the final quarter of 2024.

Bennett, who also serves as a CWI board director, told the Jamaica Observer that unlike other touring nations, territories have to make official bids to CWI to host the Indians and the English because of the significant commercial value the two teams bring.

“The bid documents should be out in another four weeks. I’ve already written to the Ministry of Sports outlining and sensitising them to the fact that England and India will be here next year,” he said. “As soon as that document comes out then we’re going to have to engage the Ministry of Sports, and probably the Ministry of Tourism too, in a serious way to ensure that we do bid for those games because they do have serious economic impact.”

Bennett says he’s optimistic the Government will follow through and see the value of the tours, particularly with India.

“Jamaica is just three hours away from the eastern seaboard of the United States and about three million Indians and cricket-loving or cricket-crazy people live on the eastern seaboard of the US so it can be a huge tourism opportunity,” he said. “So we’ll have to sit down with the Government and engage them and see how we go. The initial response that I’ve had is that there is a deep interest [within] the Government in these tours so, like I said before, we will see how it goes.”

Over the last two years, Sabina Park has seen an uptick in international matches, hosting South Africa, Bangladesh, Australia, and most recently Sri Lanka in June.

The steady turnout for those matches caught the eye of CWI President Dr Kishore Shallow who, according to reports, was impressed with Jamaica’s recent hosting stints.

However, Bennett says the Government will have to be more proactive this time around, given the number of bids CWI is expected to receive from around the region.

“There are other countries that have tourism as their main industry and they’re going to be wanting the tours too, and they’re going to be competitive too,” he said. “So we have to be on the ball and to do what we’re doing, and not only do what we should do, but we need to do it on a timely basis. We need to get in there as early as possible to see what we can get from those tours.”

Bennett, though, says Jamaica should gain an added advantage after the crowd support witnessed during the Sabina Park leg of the Caribbean Premier League earlier this month.

“It must be a factor because it’s not about just allocating to territories based on a wide basis. Cricket West Indies is not going to allocate matches just because you’re a territory and you haven’t had a game for one season or a game should go here and a game should go there. Clearly, there must be a consideration for crowd support, crowd support is an economic thing,” he said.

“The West Indies is out there to make money also and if territories support the game and come out in large numbers, clearly, we’ll have an advantage as far as the allocation of the game is concerned. I asked the cricket-loving public in Jamaica to come out and strengthen my hand and they certainly did. We can look forward to the India and the English tour with some sort of positivity. I’m sure that the crowd has put us into a place where we can barter and express our desire in a more forceful way.”

Bennett also hasn’t ruled out the possibility of hosting matches when visitors Afghanistan take on the Windies in February in both a red-ball and white-ball series.

However, the series could be postponed due to the Windies’ participation in the 50 over World Cup Qualifier which also starts in February.