KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Jamaica was unable to bid to host any of the upcoming Women’s T20 World Cup matches in the Caribbean because the costs associated were too high.
That is the word from the president of the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) Billy Heaven, who said the association simply could not afford to host any of the 23 matches which will be played in the region between November 9 and 24.
Those matches will be played in Guyana, St Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda. “The reality is, as with any male team coming here (Caribbean), the territories are now expected to bid for matches and that comes with a cost. When we looked at the women’s tournament, we could not afford it,” Heaven said.
“It is not reasonable to ask the Government to fund these things. I do not believe in that. It would cost the JCA what we don’t have because we had established some programmes before that we are obligated to fund, and we could not set those back at the time. So it was purely a matter of cost and not that we don’t want our women to play here.”
Heaven said while there was always much talk about the benefits of sports tourism, there needed to be studies done to quantify how much countries actually benefitted from it.
He said unless there were major benefits it would be unfair to ask Government to foot the bill.
“Every time a team or a country is to come here (Caribbean) to play, you hear this argument about sports tourism and all of this. We need to quantify what benefit it is to the economy. If it is of no real benefit to the economy, I couldn’t ask the Government to fund it … ,” Heaven said.
“We would work and support any initiative to establish that (research), because as you know, this has come up time and time again. You need credible data to determine that (benefits) … We cannot approach sponsors without satisfying them that these are the benefits that you (sponsors) will get from whatever we are promoting.
