 Yes, sticking with cricket after a decade in CPL Wilderness, Antigua and Barbuda will see the return of a franchise to the island. Antigua Hawks Bills were made defunct after just two seasons in the tournament, but now a new franchise will replace Jamaica Taluas in next year's edition. The government of Antigua and Barbuda have committed their support to the new franchise and joining us via Zoom is Sports Minister Daryl Matthew. Mr Matthew, good afternoon and welcome to the Sports Mag Zone. It's first of all a pleasure to have you. How are you doing? Good afternoon. Thank you for having me and season's greetings to you and all your listeners. Yeah, thank you very much. Let me start by asking how long the return of a franchise to Antigua and Barbuda has been in the pipeline? Well, I'll start by saying that as a government, we felt that the previous government really made a mistake in allowing the Antigua Hawks Bills to leave. We thought it was short-sighted because the sort of benefits that cricket brings to a country are absolutely phenomenal. And Antigua and Barbuda, we have a very strong cricketing pedigree. We have our four knights, Sir Vivian Richards, Andy Roberts, Kurt Lee, Ambrose, Richie Richardson and others who have really made a name for themselves and for Antigua and Barbuda in cricket. And so upon assuming this position or being appointed to this position as Minister of Sports, I really made it my business to ensure that we did everything we could to have a franchise based on Antigua and Barbuda. And as far back as 2019, I've been having discussions with the CPL to see how we could put things in place for this franchise to be returned to Antigua and Barbuda. We obviously got interrupted by COVID for three years. And so with COVID being in our rearview mirrors, here we are today. Yeah, here we are today. But let's be honest. Had the situation with the Jamaica Talos not developed, then the Antigua franchise may not be coming on board. Let's say for the 2024 campaign or were there some other discussions maybe about additional teams and an Antigua franchise being one of those? Where were those discussions headed? Well, we have been having discussions with several entities who had expressed an interest in having a franchise in Antigua and Barbuda. And so if it were not the Talos or the owner for the Talos, it would have been another franchise. Perhaps not in 2024, because as was mentioned by one of your previous panelists, there appears to be plans for the CPL to expand in 2025. And so while I am almost certain that Jamaica will have a franchise back in a few short years, perhaps as little as two years, Antigua and Barbuda would have had a franchise, I'm certain by that time. So to answer your question, you're correct that it may not have been for 2024. This was a gratuitous development that took place for Antigua and Barbuda. We were comfortable in our discussions with the owners of the team that was based in Jamaica or negotiations, I believe, went well. It was fair to our parties involved and we decided to proceed with these owners as opposed to others who had been quoting us for a while. Yeah, you spoke about the potential benefits of having a CPL franchise. And by extension, the importance of it. I also want to get some details from you as to why the Antigua and Barbuda government sees this venture as viable. So I understand the importance of it, viability now. Talk to me about that. Well, I'll say this to you. The support that we have pledged to the establishment of a franchise here in Antigua and Barbuda is nothing new. We have the Cricut West Indies headquarters that are domiciled here in Antigua and Barbuda. It's an entity that we fully support in several different ways. Because again, we recognize that you cannot quantify the value of having Cricut in your jurisdiction simply based on how many persons buy tickets for the games. There are tremendous trickle-down benefits. And I ask for our ministry of finance and our economics team to prepare a study for me to show exactly what the dollars and cents, what the hard value is, what the benefits are coming to Antigua and Barbuda because of CPL. And what they did, they compared actual figures for St. Lucia and St. Kitts and Nevis, both of whom have franchises and who are comparable in size to Antigua and Barbuda and looked at the data for those countries for the past few editions of the CPL and very conservatively discounted those benefits to see what that number could potentially be frantic and Barbuda. And once that report was presented to the cabinet, it was really a no-brainer for us. And so we took the decision to proceed. Yeah. Minister Matthew, you just referenced the secretariat for Cricut West Indies being domiciled there. And I want to go back to that because it does appear that Antigua's government takes Cricut very, very seriously, because in 1996, you actively put a proposal to the powers that be to have the secretariat for the West Indies Cricut Board of Control, as it was then, moved from Barbados, which had been for four decades, to Antigua and Barbuda. And I remember it happened in August 1996. And I remember the Antiguan government played a they were very strident in ensuring that the West Indies Cricut Board Secretariat came to Antigua. And I know there are a lot of things that were offered to make it irresistible. You see, we as a government have a culture of partnering with private sector and separate and apart from a regular hosting agreement, which countries agree to certain conditions for these enterprises to be domiciled there. We went even further and partnered with Cricut West Indies to purchase a facility to be used as a headquarters, a former Stanford Cricut Grounds facility at the airport compound in Antigua and Barbuda, where the headquarters are now based. We partnered with Cricut West Indies to purchase this property when it went up for sale to ensure that not only do they have roots here in Antigua and Barbuda, but we allow them to have the financial viability to operate in a facility as it was at the time. And I use that example to show that it is not simply a case of having a headquarters agreement agreed to, but we try as much as possible to sit with these organizations, find out what it is that they require to make them a success. If there are certain concessions that they require from the government, whether they be tax concessions or otherwise, we have to be consider them because while some persons may look at concessions as giving away a lot, our approach is you can't lose what you don't have. And so giving a tax concession for a particular period of time allows an organization to set up shop in your jurisdictions as opposed to not giving the concession and not having them there. To go further, we in January will also become the headquarters for the Leeward Islands Cricket Board. And so the Leeward Islands Hurricanes will also be based here in Antigua and Barbuda. And what we're trying to do is to position Antigua and Barbuda as really a center of excellence for regional cricket. To do that, we offer some support because we see the immediate and the long term benefits as phenomenal. So the Leeward Islands Cricket Board hadn't been domiciled in Antigua before. Where was it? They were domiciled in St. Kitt's. In St. Kitt's, yes. In St. Kitt's, but it had been in Antigua before some time ago, wasn't it? Many, many years ago, you know, I don't even remember the year left, but many years ago and so they will be returning to Antigua. And it just makes sense. The facilities are here. The West Indies Cricket Board headquarters are here. We have all the amenities and we have the infrastructure in place to allow them to operate in a in a in a practical and sensible manner. Yeah. Minister Matthew, you've given a narrative in the past couple of minutes that sounds very impressive as a government because the average man in the street and journalists often criticise governments throughout the Caribbean for not doing enough for sport. But based on your posture, it appears as if the Antiguan government is taking sport seriously, certainly cricket. Well, we do get the same allegation levied against us that we don't do enough for sport. And so I'm not sure that, you know, we've managed to escape that. But what we try to do is to demonstrate to the public here in Antigua and Barbuda and the taxpayers here in Antigua and Barbuda what the benefits are. When, for example, we host an international match with a team like England, and you may recognise that there are certain venues that England will always play cricket. Barbados is one, Antigua and Barbuda is one. When when England travels, they travel several thousand fans. The hotels benefit, the car rental companies, the restaurants, the vendors, everyone benefits. The same applies for CPL. And I can tell you, I was heartbroken when that team left Antigua and Barbuda several years ago because we in Antigua and Barbuda consider here, our country, the birthplace of that exciting T20 exposition that takes place when Stanford had the Stanford T20 League and I think it was 2008. Yes. And so we appreciate that we understand what cricket, especially T20 cricket brings to the table. One of your panellists mentioned that cricket is going to be a part of the Olympics coming up in the United States. And what better way to give all youngsters an opportunity to be on the big stage, to apply their ways to the public, to really put themselves out there and perhaps position Antigua and Barbuda, depending on what the qualification mechanism is going to be for the Olympics, perhaps position Antigua and Barbuda in a place where perhaps you could qualify for the Olympics in cricket. The last time we competed internationally was in the Commonwealth Games, I think in Malaysia. We haven't competed internationally as a team or as a country since then. That would have been 1998. Exactly. Perhaps LA and the United States could be the next time that we are able to compete in the Olympics as a cricketing nation. And entities and organizations like the CPL provide the platform. And so we feel it's incumbent on us and the government to create the avenues for all youngsters to get there. Yeah. And talking about cricketers and cricket in Antigua and Barbuda, of course, you have the current West Indies vice captain in both the 50 over and the test format of Zara Joseph. There's a Rakeem Cornwall. I don't want to preempt anything, Mr. Minister, but I can't imagine a franchise returning to Antigua and Barbuda. And the two biggest cricketers from your nation are not playing for you. Well, I'll leave that to the managers and, you know, others to put together. But I will go on record and say that I believe that all of Antigua and Barbuda is waiting with baited breath to see how that transpires and how that plays out. That was not part of the concessions, was it? Well, we tried to squeeze it into the negotiation, but not even that we were able to do. Minister, it's been a pleasure speaking with you and great job. We look forward to seeing the Antigua franchise back in the Caribbean Premier League and, yeah, very well done on your part and on the part of your government as well. Great job. Thank you very much. And I would like to say that as a student, I was into makeup for several years. And I thoroughly enjoyed going to the Red Stripe Mount at Sabayna Park. And so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the day, perhaps sooner rather than later, where CPL Cricut returns to Jamaica, perhaps Test Cricut, returns to Jamaica and I'll be able to enjoy it in Sabayna once again. And so thank you very much. We look forward to an exciting year or cricket next year with the World Cup as well. And let's just see what happens. Yeah, Minister Matthew, thank you very much for joining us on the Sports Mag Zone and Quick to Lance. He spoke about the Red Stripe Mount at Sabayna Park. He's not the only one who enjoyed it as far as I remember. Quite a few players, even after losing, enjoyed it as well. That was unforgettable. Let's go to a break tomorrow on the Sports Mag Zone.