The Coronavirus has not only affected sport on the field of play but off the field as well.
This holds true for Cricket West Indies which was hoping to close negotiations with television companies in India and England for a number of upcoming engagements including the T2o World Cup.
Johnny Grave, Chief Executive Officer of CWI, in describing the board’s financial situation as precarious and uncertain,, said the board was hoping on new negotiations to move to a better footing
Grave was speaking on a local television programme, Sports on Tuesday.
“Clearly it is a precarious position and uncertain,” Grave said.
He explained that each branch of their income-generating avenues was at risk.
According to Grave, CWI’s income is divided into three streams with the International Cricket Council (ICC) accounting for 40 percent, Television (TV) attracting a similar percentage and sponsorship, responsible for 20 percent.
“We are in a cycle of TV so every few years we will go to market with our TV rights and our TV rights represent about 40 percent of our income,” said Grave.
He added: “So, as I said before, about 40 percent comes from ICC and about 40 percent comes from TV companies throughout the world.
“The vast majority of that money is from the Indian and UK markets and then 20 percent comes from sponsorship, ticket revenues, CPL licenses fee, etcetera,” Grave stated.
Grave said they had ended their previous broadcast rights recently and entered the market. That situation is now in jeopardy owing to the uncertainty of cricket being played in the immediate future.
“Unfortunately we are in this position where our seven-year broadcast deal we had with Sony Ten Sports out of India, has come to an end.
“We are in a midst of all our media negotiations that have been going on for six months now. We have completed some of the five-year deals and we are looking to recoil out of the seven-year cycle and moving into a five-year cycle.
“We are still in the market and we were hoping to close, in March, our negotiations with the UK and India broadcasters
“Now, unfortunately, COvid-19 has put a pause on those negotiations and, at the moment, the situation is uncertain because until we can give certainty to those broadcasters that cricket is back being played, it is going to be almost impossible to close those deals,” the CEO explained.
Grave added that the immediate South Africa and New Zealand tours in July and August respectively were set to boost those prospects but due to the pandemic, it is uncertain if these series will be a reality.
He reiterated his confidence in West Indies Cricket as a product and the negotiation skills of those involved but pointed out…“most broadcasters at the moment, in most sports, are saying until the rights holders and the governing body can give them certainty as to when the sports will return and to give them live content, most of the significant payments are withheld.”
Like the above two series, the ICC T20 World Cup is in unchartered waters. In turn, this could potentially affect CWI’s income from ICC.
“Forty percent of our revenue comes from the ICC so the big hope for CWI is the World T20 where, obviously, we are the defending champions. The tournament is due to take place in October-November in Australia, clearly our big hope is that it can go ahead as planned which really then, the knock-on effect for us means 40 percent of our revenue which comes from the ICC would be unaffected and clearly that would be a big positive that would come from the news I’m hoping to get on Thursday,” Grave related.
However, the logistics of the tournament is dependent on the Australian government as well as the other governments relating to travel.
“Clearly no one knows what will happen and Australia themselves will be slightly mandated to what the government in Australia is saying as well as our respective governments of the international teams in terms of being able to travel and get visas to enter Australia.
“So still a huge amount of uncertainty but surely, if the ICC events can go as planned, and the ICC funding that we receive can go as planned, then really, our exposure comes from our other revenue streams which are predominantly from sponsors and broadcasters,” Grave said.
With travelling coming to a standstill, tourism which is a driving force behind the Caribbean economy has taken a hit and Sandals, one of the Region’s largest chain of resorts and a sponsor of West Indies cricket, is suffering from the repercussions.
“Clearly the effect of Covid-19 is having an effect on our sponsors. Sandals, as you know are our principal sponsors. “They have been a great supporter of West Indies Cricket for decades and a huge supporter of us now and nearly all of their resorts in the region are closed and even though they hope to open soon, I’m sure the regional governments, who rely on tourism, hope to open them soon, they are also reliant on the big markets for them like the UK, Canada and America obviously giving permission for their airports to open and the inbound tourists to come to the Caribbean so we are feeling the effect,” he stated.
The economic impact on CWI is already being felt with Grave confirming that some players have not received payment for the tour of Ireland.
Neither have some of them received their match fees for the West Indies Championship since January.
“Unfortunately at the end of February we weren’t in the financial position to pay the match fees for our regional players for the first three rounds of the Championship nor our international players who played in the series against Ireland,” Grave related.
He indicated that players are usually paid their match fees in the following month but with the delay in February and the unexpected impact of the coronavirus in March, payments from partners of CWI were not made, forcing CWI to not meet their financial obligation.
“All the players’ salaries are up to date, all the allowances are up to date and for the Women, West Indies Women team that played in the World Cup World T20 in February and March in Australia, their prize money is up to date because we received that from the ICC and passed that straight through but as of today, the match fees from January of this year is outstanding.”
