St. Kitts and Nevis was left off of the list of venues for the 2024 T20 World Cup, which will be held in the USA and the Caribbean. This was announced last week by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
The seven Caribbean locations for the T20 World Cup 2024 matches will be Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, St. Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago, and St. Vincent & The Grenadines, according to the International Cricket Council on Friday, September 22.
The Caribbean Islands and the United States will co-host the event for the first time; earlier this week, the venues for the event were revealed to be Grand Prairie in Dallas, Broward County in Florida, and Nassau County in New York.
Speaking about the announcement, ICC Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said: “We’re delighted to announce the seven Caribbean venues that will host the biggest ICC Men’s T20 World Cup ever staged, with 20 teams competing for the trophy. They’re all popular venues with players and fans that will provide a wonderful backdrop to the event.
The omission of St Kitts and Nevis left many cricket and sports enthusiasts questioning the rationale for the non-selection.
Cricket authorities in St. Kitts and Nevis confirmed that no bid from St Kitts and Nevis was made.
The Observer later found out that despite three deadline extensions, government officials still need to submit a bid despite having bid documents well before the deadline.
Samal Duggins, the minister of sport, was recently asked the question by the media, and he responded that the Federation should still be involved in some way.
“What I could say about the World Cup next year is that it is a dynamic series of events, and we may see some events here in St. Kitts. While we may not have the structured matches that some may want, we will see some activity from the World here in St Kitts.”
When asked if the federation had dropped the ball, he said the facilities were not up to par.
“It’s not a case where St Kitts and Nevis dropped the ball but what is not said is what is required to host a World Cup. the way we met our facilities and the conditions they were in when we came into office last year and the short time frame that would have been needed to get them compliant with World Cup standards, and we had to settle for what we could achieve given the time frame.”
Missed out on Millions
Many have questioned why St Kitts and Nevis did not consider the significant economic and social impacts of the tournament that for the first time will have new eyes with the United States not only hosting games but also participating in the full tournament.
The upcoming edition will be the largest ever, with the International Cricket Council expanding the complement of teams to 20.
“[These are] exciting times; it’s a great opportunity for the region,” CWI President Dr Kishore Shallow said.
“Just to put this into perspective, the last World Cup in Australia, you had like 1500 jobs being created—over US$365 million in terms of economic impact. This is what this means to the region.
“This is going to be the biggest World Cup ever; 20 teams. And of course, we have thousands of fans coming to the Caribbean to witness this! Great!”
Dr. Shallow’s statements indicate that the Federation will likely miss out on tens of millions or more of economic benefits by not hosting games.
T20 World Cup by the Numbers
In December the ICC announced that the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 saw 6.58 billion video views across all ICC platforms, surpassing the Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 record by 65% and making it the most digitally engaged ICC event ever.
There were 78.4 million visitors across the Men’s T20 World Cup on web and app platforms, a record and a 57% increase from last year’s edition. These numbers were driven by ICC’s investment in delivering new digital experiences to fans such as live fielding positions data via ICC’s Official Data Supplier Sportradar, a 360-degree visualisation of the tournament’s biggest sixes and a vertical video experience powered by AI-generated match highlights.
From a broadcast perspective, the overall cumulative global dedicated TV audience for Australia in 2022 was 1.28 billion. A total of 3.95 billion hours of the event was watched including 365 million viewing hours on digital streaming platforms. Live streaming consumption increased by 149 million viewing hours from the previous Men’s T20 World Cup in 2021, reflecting a change in customer habits and how they are consuming live coverage.
Additionally, it saw strong TV broadcasting numbers around the globe, particularly in Australia, the host country, and the UK due to England’s victory. This proved the effectiveness of cricket and ICC events in bringing together a sizable global audience and enticing both new and seasoned fans.
Based on the numbers, St Kitts and Nevis will miss out on the digital and television engagement that will naturally come with hosting a tournament of this magnitude in some tourism source markets and the opportunity to expand into others. As well as the earned media attention to showcase the federation to the rest of the world.
Since 2007, Warner Park has become a staple of cricket within the region and recently hosted the entire Caribbean Premier League in 2021 and the ICC U19 World Cup in 2022, where games were played at Warner Park and the Conaree Cricket Centre.
Later in 2022, Warner Park hosted the entire inaugural 6ixty tournament, the WCPL, and one of four legs of the CPL.
In 2023, it also successfully hosted another leg of the CPL in August.
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