St. John’s, Antigua – The Directors of the West Indies Cricket Board gathered for a regularly-scheduled, quarterly meeting of its Directors last Saturday at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground here.
The following were the key reports received and decisions taken:
Benefit Match for Dominica
A Benefit Match between a WICB President’s Invitational XI and UWI Vice Chancellor’s Invitational XI is being rganized to raise funds for the people of Dominica who suffered catastrophic damage from the passage of Tropical Storm Erika and continue to be affected by heavy rainfall. All proceeds from the match will be sent to the Government of Dominica.
The proposed date is Saturday, September 26th, at Kensington Oval in Barbados. The teams will be drawn from the West Indies team preparing for the Tour of Sri Lanka and a combination of legends, prominent people and other sports personalities. It is expected to be telecast and a telethon will form part of the activities.
New Commercial Strategy for West Indies Cricket
The Directors agreed to a new commercial strategy which they hope will improve revenue inflows. The presentation was done by sports marketing agency, Pitch International.
Pitch International have identified four strategic objectives:
- Increase revenue,
- Create a clear commercial identity for West Indies cricket,
- Create a cost-effective marketing platform that delivers for commercial partners, and
- Establishment of a strong digital platform.
The WICB plans to roll out elements of the new commercial strategy in the coming months.
Economic Impact Assessment
The key outcomes of the Economic Impact Assessment which was conducted during the England Tour of the Caribbean earlier this year revealed that the region, as a whole, largely benefitted from hosting the three Tests.
The study revealed that generated gross expenditure related to the Tour was approximately US $73.2 million, of which the economic impact was US $59.8 million or 82 per cent of the generated gross expenditure. The lion’s share of this impact was driven by the spectators’ spend, i.e. US $50.1 million.
The study found that 15,660 unique visitors from overseas (including 3,150 on tour packages) came to the West Indies for the Tour and contributed to this figure.
A destination analysis was also provided to help the WICB understand the global media coverage and TV audiences during the England Tour, and the amount of brand exposure each of the host destinations received and the subsequent value of this coverage.
The key results were the advertising value equivalent was calculated at US $10 million and the quality index value was US $4.7 million. Of the total AVE value, the host islands Antigua at 40 per cent and Grenada at 39 per cent generated the largest shares, while Barbados at 21 per cent suffered from the reduced playing time of three days.
There were 1,477 verbal mentions of West Indies as a “brand” counted, generating a media value of US $1.1 million.
Cricket Matters
The Directors received a number reports on cricket operations and reviewed key recommendations, including reviews of recent performances by the West Indies men’s and women’s teams, the high performance programme, regional age group and women’s tournaments, as well as coaching and development programmes.
Director of Cricket Richard Pybus indicated the challenges faced with funding and running the game in the Caribbean were systemic in nature and proposed two measures to address them. They were the establishment of a West Indies Cricket Trust and a scorecard system for benchmarking the PCL franchises and development programmes. The Directors resolved to have further discussion on both measures.
The Directors also approved key details for the NAGICO Super50 Tournament which is scheduled between January 4th and 26th to be jointly hosted in Trinidad and St. Kitts. The tournament will be contested between the six PCL franchises, along with Combined Campuses & Colleges Marooners and ICC Americas. Full details of the tournament will be released later.
Finance Matters
WICB Finance has forecast the governing body will achieve a surplus of close to US $2 million at the close of the current financial year on September 30th.
The Directors of West Indies Cricket Board comprise the nominated representatives of each of the six Full Members plus four independent directors. The meeting was chaired by WICB President Whycliffe “Dave” Cameron. Also present were the WICB Vice President, WICB Chief Executive and WICB Corporate Secretary.