 Sticking with cricket or the lack thereof, Sabina Park isn't the only prominent cricket ground across the region that will not host games during the 2024 T20 World Cup. The government of St. Kitts and Nevis and Grenada also decided against bidding for the Maki event. The decision by the St. Kitts and Nevis government has not gone down well with the country's cricket association, whose president, David Phillips, has been expressing his disappointment. Alright, so this is what he said, in terms of why St. Kitts and Nevis has not been selected as a venue, it's actually a matter beyond the control of the St. Kitts Cricket Association. The decision that was not made, as some people indicate, is a decision by the Ministry of Sports and of course the government as a whole. We're really sorry that something was not done or an investment was not made to be able to facilitate the upcoming 2024 World Cup. He continues, the World Cup is not just a sport, it is also a tourism spinoff and tourism is one of our biggest industries outside of citizenship by investment. Sports tourism can actually play a part that can keep us going and the economy floating when the actual cruise tourism is off. Well joining us to shed more light on this issue is Andrew Huey, News & Sports editor for SKN Newsline. Good afternoon, it's a pleasure to have you on set with us. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. I love in the studio by the way. And a nice shoot. St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots. I kind of have to represent. Well, you're definitely. Disappointed season, but yeah. Yeah. Alright, so we're going to start with this issue. You know, we've really spoken about it extensively here in relation to Jamaica. So your initial thoughts on the fact that your country didn't even bid for such a massive event? It is a disappointing. Cricket fans are disappointed as you heard from the president of the SKCA. They are disappointed. They've actually tried to see if bids could have been submitted. Even when the bids, the extension of the deadline was granted, they were still trying to see if a last ditch effort could have been made. But as the report indicated, they didn't have the backing of the minister of sports, the minister of sports. Interestingly, the only thing we've heard so far from the government came from the minister of sports a few weeks ago where he said that, well, the reason given was that the venue was not up to par in terms of. Limited resources. Yes. And then they would not have been able to get it ready in time for the for the World Cup. But that didn't sit well with Mr. Philip from the SKCA. In fact, he believes that if there was a real intention to get the games here in St. Kitts, that all efforts could have been pulled off to have the venue ready in time to have these games. So they're not happy that that is the case. Yeah. And talk to me about the population of St. Kitts and Nives. What's been the mood like, you know, after this news came out? Well, I remember when the story came out. I think the story came on CMC on the weekend, on Friday. And it was just a full of comments on social media. People were like, well, why is it that we're not hosting games? So people are disappointed. And considering that, you know, St. Kitts and Nives has a CPL franchise, the Patriots. People come out in their numbers to the Patriots games. This past year, I mean, this past season, we had some good support at the Warner Park. So people are looking forward to seeing international cricket. In addition to that, St. Kitts and Nives has made some investment over the years. Four Warner Park lights were installed a few years ago. A Jumbotron was installed there. So a lot of additions were made since the 2007 World Cup at the Warner Park to host international games. So to miss an opportunity like this with all that investment made is disappointing and baffling to say the least. Having said that, Andrew, you would have heard the lengthy discussions we just had with Chris Dering and Dr. Akshay Man Singh, referencing what they said, could you connect with some of the points they were making? Yeah, I think the points they made were spot on in the sense that cricket brings a lot of value. And especially international event like this brings a lot of monetary value to the nations that host these games. And St. Kitts and Nives is no exception. We've seen reports time after time from the CPL indicating the dollar value of hosting games in the respective countries. St. Kitts and Nives is a small environment, a small country. When you have an international event like this, it instantly boosts the economic activity there. So for example, you'll have hotels. The hotels are all booked out. In fact, I was just having a discussion offset just before coming here. And we were pointing out the fact that the room stock and the hotel stock in St. Kitts and Nives is adequate to accommodate the fans and the numbers of people that will be coming into the stadium and coming in to watch a cricket World Cup. And again, because of the size, five minutes away from the venue, it's not a long drive to get from Frigate Bay where the hotels are to Warner Park and Bastia. So there are a lot of advantages that St. Kitts and Nives offers in hosting the games. And for not having it, it's a missed opportunity. Can you speak to any degree on the quality of representation that the St. Kitts Cricket Association would have presented? Because as Chris and Dr. Mansing just pointed out, the onus is on the Jamaica Cricket Association in this instance, but in the St. Kitts position to ensure that they produce a document that is irresistible and able to influence the decision in their favor. I can't speak definitively to what exactly they would have done in terms of documentation and the argument they would have put forward. However, if we were to go based on the press release that they sent out, they would have made the case for the economic impact that hosting the games would have had. And again, considering that St. Kitts and Nives has a history of hosting. They had the World Cup in 2007. We also hosted the ICC Under-19 World Cup last year at two venues, Warner Park and the Connery Cricket Grounds. So again, you have a track record of hosting international events, cricket in particular. You know the economic impact. And again, I'm not too sure what the reasoning was for the decision. Of course, the ministers did say it was the venue needed to be upgraded, but it could have been much deeper than that. I'm not quite sure if we have reached the end of this story. I think there's more to come out of it. Do you think they missed a beat in the fact that it's not only about the cricket and the amount of seats that will be sold, but the fact that it can, and I will use this term, cricket, carnival, because we're just coming out of CPL. And I'm using the term, of course, very lightly. Because when you think about carnival, you think about an explosion of culture because I come from carnival country, right? There's so many things you can do around the cricket to highlight. St. Kitts and Neves has a country, the culture of the people, and to put you on the biggest stage because we're talking World Cup viewership. And again, Mariah, that is again the baffling part of it. Because St. Kitts and Neves, aside from cricket, St. Kitts and Neves has the record, the track record of hosting international events. I'm sure you've heard of the St. Kitts Music Festival. Happens every year for the past 20 plus years. There have been reports that show that hosting the St. Kitts Music Festival every year generates economic activity outside of the festival itself. Again, you're talking about hotel rooms, you're talking about restaurants. You cannot get a character rent during the St. Kitts Music Festival. So you could imagine having a cricket World Cup after 16 years come into the shores of St. Kitts and Neves. Just the economic boost that would be for the small businesses in the area and the larger businesses as well. In addition to that, again, just even from a logistical standpoint, again, because of hosting all these international events, the expertise is there to ensure that logistically carrying out the activities and the fringe activities that are necessary to keep the interest level, the expertise is there. So do you feel like there's a reason for that? I really can't explain why the decision wasn't made to have it. Alans, you know, when we talk about these things, right? Because we've interviewed people surrounding Jamaica and now we're speaking to him. So it appears that everything is in place for both countries that we've explored. So then, what's the issue? Yeah, but you know, I want to also come from the government standpoint because as I made the point in the previous segment about governments having far more than sport to govern and preside over, the economic outlook for St. Kitts and Neves has been pretty strong in the past year. They did have a rebound in economic growth in the past year coming out of COVID periods and there was a GDP 9% growth that I gather. So the economy in St. Kitts and Neves at the moment isn't bad. So with an opportunity to get a cricket World Cup on the plate for the country, it just seems to have been an investment that they could have, stroke should have made. Yeah, and that's why I say it's a missed opportunity. And also why I say that I don't think that we're going to hear the end of this because normally the government has a monthly press conference so I'm sure this question is going to come up again to the sports minister. But if we were to use the explanation given by the minister in the sense of venue itself needed some work, the question would have been how much would that have cost and how long would it have taken to have gotten all those infrastructure repairs and whatever needs to be done in time for the World Cup? Yeah. The SKCA seems to believe or they're confident that whatever fixtures that needed to be done would have been able to be done in time to have the World Cup and be able to host the games. So they're not convinced that that was an adequate enough excuse. Yeah, I know you're a newsman and you have been affiliated with sporting associations, have you in the past? Yes. Cricket and football? Football mostly. Cricket as well for football currently, yes. Yeah. What would you suggest is on a scale of one to ten the appetite of the average St. Kitts and Nevis person with regard to sport? Well, if I could use football for an example, just last night or two nights ago actually, we're in the final few games of the SKFA Premier League, which is the St. Kitts and Nevis Football Association Premier League, best of three series, game two was on Tuesday night, stadium filled with capacity. The one-apart football stadium is actually right next to the cricket stadium, so it's one venue. When you say capacity, what's the attendance? We are looking at over 1,400, 1,600 people and we're talking about the bleachers filled with capacity, we're talking about the stands filled. And the atmosphere was just euphoric, it was just fantastic. The game three, so now the series is tied one apiece, so game three is gonna be on Friday night and I'm sure we're gonna have a huge turnout for those games. So to answer your question, sports is a big thing in St. Kitts and Nevis. Of course it depends on the sport, some sports more than others. Outside of football you also have basketball, which is also, and the thing about St. Kitts, especially St. Kitts, is that sports is community driven. So you have, for example, the two teams in the football finals, Village Superstars, St. Paul's United, represent communities. The communities come out in their numbers and they're very loyal, very loyal fans. So you find that that community drive is what drive, one, drive the players and the teams and it too, it encourages that community atmosphere. So when you go to a game, you're seeing the fans coming out in their numbers, representing not just the team, representing your community. There's a community pride that comes along with playing sports in St. Kitts, especially. Yeah, well, what's for sure is any country will feel, and I'm talking about the fans, will feel a bit demotivated and disappointed when things happen like this. However, we're gonna continue to dig deeper as we said at the top of the show. We're continuing to highlight the issues and of course we want to hear from all the different sides. Not just us, because I'd love if the government could come talk to us too, although it's making different decisions. I'm sure they will. Like I said, this is not the end of this. I'm sure the government will provide an explanation as to why. Especially seeing a lot of people are now asking. And of course the SKCA, they've given their side of the story. We just have to wait and see. Yeah, well, I wanna thank you so much for stopping by on this sports night story. And I'm hoping I can come back. Definitely, chat soon. Well, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.