LONDON: Cricket West Indies is strongly considering the prospect of inviting the Indian cricket team to play 3 T20I matches at the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida in July 2019 right after the World Cup in England, CWI CEO Jonny Grave has confirmed.
As per the ICC’s revamped Future Tours Programme (FTP), India are scheduled for a tour of the West Indies comprising of 3 ODIs and 2 Tests in June 2019. The T20Is are expected to be played just before the tour.
Grave told ESPNcricinfo that the series could be a catalyst for the board to play a minimum of 10 T20Is in North America till 2022 as a part of its long-term strategy to grow the game in countries such as the USA and Canada.
“There’s full board support as part of our strategic plan over the next five years to bring regular games into the Americas,” Grave said on the sidelines of the ongoing Caribbean Premier League.
“So not always talking about USA, we’re talking about Canada and other parts to try to grow the sport. The whole ICC strategic plan is around growing the game and we’re huge advocates of Associate cricket.
“We want to grow the game. We’re big advocates of playing in the Olympics even though one might argue that’s quite complicated because effectively we’d be playing as the separate sovereign countries of the West Indies – but we don’t have a problem with that.”
Grave admits that one of the major hurdles for the strategy to work would be the USA cricket board, which has come under much controversy for more than 12 months due to poor governance and is yet to be fully ratified by the ICC. As a result, CWI will take be seeking ICC’s permission directly to play hosts to India in Florida. Should the ICC approve, the West Indies are likely to push for these T20Is to be played at 9 pm in order to avoid the heat during the day, get more crowds to the ground and cater to the lucrative Indian television market as well.
“That would be our aim. Clearly we have to discuss that with sponsors and broadcast partners, but realistically when you’re playing India in the Caribbean you have to play either very late at night or very early in the day. If you’re playing India, the passion of the India fans, they’ll turn up whether you play at 11am or 9pm at night.” he added.
In order to improve relations with the USA, CWI has also invited them every year to play in a triangular Regional Super50 competition in October with Canada being the third team.
Grave further told the cricket website: “We’re not here to make a fast buck, that’s probably the bottom line.
“This isn’t just about economics. This is a five-year plan and in five years we think we can start to make a difference to support USA and Canada and that’s just the next two best teams in the Americas.
“We want to develop cricket in the whole region, but the next two sides have the ability to break into the 16-team T20 World Cup. Through CPL, playing in our Under-19 tournament, the Super50 and making sure this stadium maintains its status as an international ground can only help USA Cricket. We’ve been pretty vocal and been big advocates about how good the quality of the cricket was in the World Cup Qualifiers and how we need to expand the game and not shrink the game.”
