(Trinidad Guardian) A decision on where the finals of the 2016 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 tournament will be played will be made this week and T&T’s foreign exchange situation remains a major factor in the equation.
CPL officials are demanding US $1M in US currency but the T&T Government is adamant that all contributions will be paid in T&T dollars because of the country’s short supply of US dollars.
The government also wants its contribution to pay as many local bills as possible, so that less money will leave the country. It is understood that CPL is asking for US$4.5M to award the finals weekend to any of the Caribbean countries.
Negotiations are continuing but there is a strong possibility that the organisers will reject the T&T currency and play the finals at another venue. Guyana is still in the mix as is Fort Lauderdale, where the last round of matches will be played.
Sources say the organisers could easily ask the final four qualifiers to stay on for a few extra days in Broward to play the finals. A source close to the situation told Guardian Media that a decision has to be made by the end of this week.
According to the source: “The government is trying all that is reasonable to bring the finals to T&T but at the same time they want to make sure they do the right thing and use the opportunity of staging the finals to assist the local economy even if it is for a short time.”
Initially Guyana was named as the venue for the finals as part of their 50th anniversary of Independence celebrations.
However, the T&T Government asked the CPL owners for a chance to make a revised bid. Last year, T&T paid US$3.5M to host the event for the second time in the three-year history (the other venue being St Kitts and Nevis). Initially T&T refused to pay US$4.5M to host the matches and instead, offered US$1.5M which was turned down.
