T&T Government, CPL officials unaware of finals being held in Trinidad, despite claims by Guyana

Despite several media houses in Guyana reporting that the CPL finals will be staged in Trinidad and Tobago, officials in the Twin Island Republic are unaware of any decision their Government would’ve made regarding the hosting of the August 7 event.

News Room Sports also contacted an official from the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), today, who also said that talks are still being held with both the Government of Trinidad and Guyana, regarding the hosting of the finals.

“There’s no confirmation on the official hosting of the finals. We’re still in talks with Trinidad and Guyana to get the best possible outcome” the CPL official said.

However, Minister of Education Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, told one section of the media that “the state of play is that it seems as though Trinidad has outbid us and they are having those discussions”.

But, Government officials in Trinidad, when contacted by News Room Sports, seemed baffled about the news, with one stating “we’re not aware of that. What we’re aware of is the Government of Trinidad still in talks with the CPL to see what we could work out. We also know that the CPL people were in talks with the Guyanese Government as well”.

Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman, had told reporters at a Post Cabinet Press Conference that the Government of Guyana may only pay US$1.5M for the hosting of both the semi-finals and finals of the regional cricket marquee event.

Trotman noted that with Guyana celebrating its 50^th Anniversary as an independent nation, hosting the CPL finals will be a “good injection into the economy”.

Cabinet had met on Tuesday to deliberate on Guyana hosting the fourth installation of the tournament and are yet to make an official announcement and an outcome.

Last year, the T&T government 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 Trinidad had mentioned to the owners of the CPL that they were not willing to pay US$4.5M to host the matches and instead, they offered US$1.5M which did not fit the bill.

It is understood that Trinidad and Tobago got left behind because of the government’s insistence on paying all the local bills, so that their investment remains in the country and this did not go down well with the CPL, who wanted a cash payout.

The T&T government’s idea of paying the local bills as their investment to hosting the matches was as a result of the recession the country is undergoing at the moment and keeping the money here would have led to movement in the local economy even if it was for a short period.

SMG Insight, the firm hired to audit last year’s CPL, reasoned that by hosting last year’s event, T&T got significant economic and social benefits, which included the direct spend by CPL from hotel to local vendors, travel, media and advertising.

The total direct impact of the 2015 tournament for the T&T economy was stated as US$15.40 million. This was broken down into the direct spend by CPL which was US$3.84 million, accommodation and general expenditure was listed at US$5.63 million, and value produced by the T&T Tourist Board branding at matches was put at US$5.93 million.

The proposal also outlined to all governments that a total of 93,929 fans attended the matches in T&T and as a result 551 jobs were created. In addition, a television audience of 27.3 million persons viewed the games, and a total of 5,703 nights were spent by non-local spectators at the hotels in T&T.