Bridgetown, Barbados,
December 6 - (
www.bcacricket.org
) -
As Directors of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) were preparing for a meeting in St. Kitts on Saturday, president Whycliffe "Dave" Cameron explained why Combined Campuses & Colleges (CCC) would not be taking part in the 2014 Super50 championship in Trinidad starting late January, unless one of two invited teams pulled out.
Describing it as "purely a commercial reason", Cameron also further sought to explain why Trinidad & Tobago were awarded the hosting of the January 30 to February 16 tournament, which will be played in the twin-island republic for the next three years.
According to Cameron, the emphasis was on boosting tourism with the idea of "Come for cricket, stay for the Carnival'.
Cameron, a 42-year-old Jamaican who was elected WICB president in March this year, was speaking in a wide-ranging interview on the talk show Mid Wicket, The Real Cricket Show, on the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio station 100.7 FM, hosted by veteran sports journalist Keith Holder.
"As you know, when I took over as president of this august body, I've always spoken about improving our revenues and the bottom line," he said.
"Now you may not be aware and we've stated it over and over (that) we actually lost six million dollars last year and we have a negative equity of just that amount - six million dollars.
"The Trinidad & Tobago Government has said that they are willing to support the Super50 tournament, that they are looking at it from a tourism perspective. The idea is "Come for cricket, stay for the Carnival'.
"And hence when our committees looked at it, cricket and marketing, they thought that the best way was to have the six (traditional) teams (Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Trinidad & Tobago, Windward Islands) and invite two additional teams to participate and would support Trinidad's objective of the tourism aspect.
"So at this point we have invited two external teams and if the two external teams accept, then the CCC team will not be participating in the tournament in February.
"It is purely a commercial reason, so one has to understand that we have to look at development but at the same time we have to find a way to get our commercial property sponsored."
Cameron did not disclose the names of the two "external" teams but well-placed sources have identified them as Ireland and United States of America.
The sources also said the decision had been made since September.
When pressed to identify the two "external" teams, Cameron responded: "At this point, you will get a release very, very soon Keith as to the two teams that will be participating."
"And as I said, the CCC is subject so that if one of the teams are not able to participate, we will invite the CCC team but I want us to be very clear at this point, based on the Board's decision, the CCC team is not necessarily going to be a part of the Super50 tournament."
Cameron said he had spoken with Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, the Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies and principal at the Cave Hill Campus in Barbados, the base of CCC, pointing out that despite their removal from the Super50 championship, CCC will continue to play in the first-class (four-day) tournament.
CCC were losing finalists to the Windward Islands in the 2013 Super50 championship, which was played simultaneously with the four-day tournament in several territories before the semi-finals and final were hosted by Barbados.
Cameron also pointed to the fact the WICB had been unable to attract a sponsor for its major competitions since, ironically, Carib Beer, with its roots in Trinidad & Tobago, last sponsored the first-class championship in 2008.
"And, Keith, you would be aware that we have not had a sponsor for any of our domestic tournaments for the last seven or eight years. So this is a major step.
"However, and I made it categorically clear because I did speak to Professor Beckles that the CCC team will be a part of the four-day tournament and will continue to be such.
"We believe that the four-day tournament is the most important tournament in the region. It is where our development takes place and so all of the emphasis will be there. And so the CCC team will be a part of that.
"We've also looked at … changing the system to ensure that we get teams scoring more runs, batting longer, etc., which have been true characteristics of our failure as you would have seen in India (during recent tour)."
In response to what were the items on the agenda for the December 7 meeting, Cameron said: "On the agenda we will finalise the teams for that (Super50) tournament and we will have the participation agreement to send to all of the teams participating.
"As is customary during my leadership of the West Indies Cricket Board, we will have a Press conference after the meeting and we will discuss and highlight all of the decisions that we have made."
