DESPITE being disappointed by the Jamaican Government’s lack of support over the years, Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Chief Executive Officer Pete Russell says he is grateful for other regional governments who acknowledge and support the significant economic value that he says the CPL brings.

The Caribbean’s premier T20 tournament will have its 12th season later this year, with six teams being hosted in Trinidad, Guyana, Barbados, St Lucia, St Kitts, and the returning Antigua and Barbuda.

However, there will be no Jamaican franchise for the first time since the tournament’s inception in 2013 as former Tallawahs owner, Kris Persaud, now owner of the Antiguan franchise, sold the team back to the CPL after citing lack of support from the Jamaican Government. Matches have also not been held in Jamaica since 2019.

Russell told the Jamaica Observer that the CPL sees the involvement of other governments as significant, and also believes their relationships are mutually beneficial.

“It’s very strong, and we don’t underestimate the strength of those relationships and the importance of those relationships,” he said. “Sports tourism is a very big deal around the world; you only have to look at some of the major sports to see how important it is — the Qatar [Fifa] World Cup being an obvious example of that. We understand now that CPL is now at a level where we do get fans flying to watch these games and enjoying the games — whether that’s inter-island travel; or fans coming from New York, Miami, other parts of the USA; and Canada as well. We understand there’s an inherent value that CPL brings.

“But it’s more than that; it’s the social aspect as well. It’s the fact that local fans can get behind their team and go and support them (local players obviously have a huge role to play in that), and small businesses, when we’re there, obviously make money — and that’s really the key. We come into countries like St Lucia, St Kitts, and Barbados for example — periods in the year when there’s not naturally high-season tourist times — so for those businesses it’s great because we come in with a lot of people and we spend money so it’s good for the local economy. There’s a number of reasons why the governments enjoy having CPL there, and they are important to our ecosystem as well.”

Russell says CPL’s partnership with Cricket West Indies (CWI) has helped to further develop the sport in the region.

“It’s excellent. I speak to the president, CEO, and a number of other members of staff at CWI on a daily basis,” he said. “At the end of the day we’re all aiming and striving for the same goal. We want, obviously, [for] West Indies cricket to be top of the tree, we want fans to re-engage with the game across the region, and we want a flood of development players to come through so the future of West Indies Cricket is secure. We’re all singing from the same hymn sheet. It was always a bit tricky in the early days but I think we’re way past that now and it’s a case of working together for the betterment of West Indies cricket.

“We’ve paid players close to US$50 million (if you take every single tournament since day one), which is a significant amount of money. And it’s good because players that wouldn’t otherwise make a living out of cricket can now look at cricket and make a living out of it. That’s very important, and it takes the burden off CWI because, obviously, we’re paying the salaries, and not CWI. People fail to remember that if CWI are going to be able to employ all these cricketers, they have to find funds from somewhere.

Russell says CPL has successfully heightened the interest and enthusiasm of regional fans towards the sport, especially considering the West Indies’ challenges in international cricket over the decades.

“I would say until CPL came along, things weren’t looking great in terms of getting fans in stadiums to watch games,” he said. “That’s something we try to reignite, making sure those fans feel passionate about the game, and we’ve done that through making sure there’s that local rivalry between teams; I think that’s important. People love to see full stadiums. If you look at the finals that we had in Guyana, it was fantastic. It was a great show of colour, noise, and excitement — and that’s because of cricket.”

Russell says one of CPL’s aims is to help with grass roots cricket across the Caribbean.

“[Our job] is really to support anything that CWI comes up with to get cricket played at schools, at the junior level, and that’s the bit that we need to work on,” he said. “How do we get primary school kids into a system that is going to create the next Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, or whoever it happens to be? Because we have plenty of examples of players who do a good job in CPL but then go to international leagues and do well elsewhere, and make a decent living out of it.”