 This is the Sportsmax zone and we're continuing with Cricket. Jamaican fans have continued to express disappointment that the country did not bid to host games at the 2024 T20 World Cup being jointly held in the Caribbean and the United States. The list of hosts for the men's T20 World Cup slated for June next year was announced last Thursday on Jamaica's Exclusion Spark major discussion about government support or lack thereof for Cricket. Now joining us to discuss this matter is marketing consultant Carole Beckford, Carole. We know that you have a lot of expertise in this area and it's been a very topical issue not only in Jamaica but right throughout the Caribbean of course a lot of Caribbean countries celebrating that they are hosting it's the other side of the coin for the Jamaicans who are disappointed. How did that news grab you that the Jamaican aggregation didn't put it in a bid for this T20 hosting? I think we all are disappointed but from my perspective because I worked at JamPro when we last hosted World Cup in 2007 that we paid some serious money on investing what was the legacy program at the time which morphed into the major events attraction program which spoke to or speaks to because it's still there how to hold subsequent events what kind of businesses to do and so on so we have a whole major events attraction program which has shifted between JamPro and the Jamaica Tourist Board because it is primarily to bring more people here and to create kind of events that would supplement, complement all other things but it was around the World Cup. Australia is pretty good at building legacy programs and they would have gone to Montreal and after all the Olympics and Cricket World Cup 2007 but to fast forward to this is that we knew way ahead of time that the World Cup Cricket World Cup was coming back we missed out I think in 2010 because of the shortened version of it but we have hosted major events since then and Sabina Park in particular one of the most established grounds across the Cricketing World I mean we haven't hosted cricket here for probably three good years and I mean that's astounding that Jamaica didn't make a bid to host any of the events. Of course the Sports Minister in Jamaica Olivia Babsigrange has had a quick response to the negative comments coming out of this and suggesting that the cost benefits didn't match the investment and of course you'd probably reflect on 2007 the Cricket World Cup stages in the Caribbean where the Jamaica leg was reported to have lost a lot of money and reflecting on that I guess that would have helped to influence the decision the government made in in not taking this offer up. Well the last World Cup to probably would have gotten some kind of direct increase probably was the one in South Africa but what has happened over the years Jamaica was then designated a sport tourism destination so we're a land that we create as seats and we're a land that hosts as seats and host events so a lot of the people that have come here which includes sport tourists that are no number somewhere between three and four of the highest spending tourists in the world they come here for different reasons so having lost on that two week events or whatever time frame it was over the years we have seen more sport tourists coming to Jamaica and the Jamaica Tourist Board does have the research and you know what I find strange is that Minister Bhatt it is now announcing that he's going after Asian, Canadian market they're not coming here to play to play drops or jacks they're coming here to watch cricket and do other things and it is first of all it is offensive that our Minister of Sports could actually say that and the stakeholders who did she meet with the Talawaz has a full economic assessment of what benefit it is to each country and to Jamaica and they release that information CPL has come and I'm saying all right we could have hosted CPL last year and test the water since we know that World Cup we can't have an event like that when Jamaicans are playing cricket and trying to read somewhere but part of it is playing at home and so right now none of our Jamaican cricketers play at home they come back and they play for the close but there's no international event I mean I could get into cricket is the second most sports in the world we know where the cricket viewership is from they actually like Jamaica and it is an explosion of our cuisine and all of that stuff so the economic to host the actual event for the days it is expensive let me just tell you that but government facilitate so we could invite corporate to support we could re-vigorate the people to come back to the boxes people pay to come I mean it's I am this appointment is not even a word but I think it's gonna cost us for years to come because track and field despite how well we do in the world does not attract the same level of investment it has to be cricket and football and they had years to plan what is the role of the s diff what is the role of chase the ministries of sport and tourism who did she meet with what did they say it can't be we can just accept this Carol and now I'm Trini I live here so I consider myself an honorary Jamaican that's just my personal thing but from the rest of the Caribbean the rest of the world looking on and every day the headline says no cricket will be hosted in Jamaica no CPL no T20 nothing is coming up one of the things I have really really felt unfortunate since I've been living here my sister hasn't played a match she plays for Weston he's woman I've been looking forward to that so even as the average Caribbean person looking on wondering what's happening in Jamaica how does that affect brand Jamaica it's damaging the brand we have research that says four billion four and a half billion people have access to Jamaica on for a second flight so the flights coming airway to the cheaper and you get here faster so we have Lance we have research that could stone dog and I'm saying boost the services of the s diff to a proper marketing planning and research people so here it is no we're not going to get a cricket but to move forward let's just find a solution so you boost the services of the s diff I've written about it over and over we need to wrap up chase give back culture health and education to where they belong and form a proper sport agency that looks from now until 2032 when we have a couple Olympics and sing and host games within we're also at risk to lose our status I think in track and field for one the world challenge meets if we don't have like the Jamaica Invitational yes so there are a number of other things and I'm saying if we have a sport ministry let's look at how we can attract investment and give incentives so if somebody invests 30 million dollars in an infrastructure for example there's a 30% return Trinidad has done some research and we just need to put the Jamaican figures in there and see how it can work we can have our athletes doing so well the girls in in Canada now we reached top 60 we never even have a proper welcome party for the girls it's like we just sitting back and say all right the girls and we're running when pay football the guys are playing cricket and so what what do we do if just lock it down then if we're not when do this let's just lock it down what is the point and that is what upsets me it's not even about that we're not getting to host but is the excuses that they're given to us and make it look like Chris Dearin is here Michael Hall has successfully run CPL for 10 years why not get Michael to plan this thing and I'm very upset about that that the people of the expertise are not being used and that is the problem because the stakeholders who the minister have suggested she has met with I don't know who they are because I called a couple of them and they have said they have not met so who what she's spoken to and I am saying if you say don't want to host it say that but don't make excuses yeah let me ask you this Carol is there any explanation on the part of the government slash the minister of sport that would have suffice for why they are not or why they did not bid to host this event from your standpoint I'm not too sure because what has happened now because we're doing in the investigations we found out that the time frames then they're not matching up to the information that they giving us I mean it's as simple as that so the sqs is and it can't be just easy for us to start we're going to give money to development of cricket it has to be a carefully planned out strategy the vision 2030 has a whole sport policy we have a thing that we say how to bid when to bid what we bid for what are the conditions in addition to the fact that cricket West Indies has its rules and is set it and it goes to the government the government does things with duty at the thing so they don't even have to give us money you know if they said let me use a company if Ricardo chambers and company corporations and I'm going donate 40 million dollars the government we can go to the government and say listen he's putting up money for this he's building new stands he's doing that giving back 30 percent our money and it makes something worthy so so you facilitate and that is what countries that have sport as as a comparative and competitive advantage do and it is at this service store as these who continue to perform so well globally and not being able to have a destination that has venues that are sitting there I live because they're underutilized and that's a whole lot of problem we're going to have to refurbish every single sporting venue in this country they're used for parties and even sufficient sorry that's what I want to say it's been used for the wrong things well I I don't know about wrong things because they're multiple right venues and so I think that's fine if you're having parties at them timing you can discuss of when you have these parties but I wanted to get from Carol because you spoke about the timing as it has been presented to us not matching can you explain that a little bit more for us all right so they they there was a expression of interest in the government terms so something came out at terms of reference they came to all the countries I think Courtney Francis in a in another interview suggested that the papers came here in April which was right after the first the first week of the new financial year in government but it was explained from last year that cricket is coming to the Americas when they sat down in October to do the estimates of expenditure that should have been something that is clear that they went put on this thing and it's also a pre-olympic year remember you know we're going four year and two year cycles so the 1.16 billion that is allocated for sports in the last estimates of expenditure which is not an olympic year could have been boosted a little and you shift it around I mean regretably and the information is out there by the way people you can google it you can go on sdf website the ministry of finance website and all of these things are there I've only been able to put information together because I've worked in the business and so I'm saying moving forward a complaint enough so moving forward we have we have opportunities to host holy pettings bring in there bring Australia carry Australia netball and start doing things so the people that play and prepare get an opportunity to have international thing the same Canadians and Asians that we're going after cricket has a Canada has a g-17 up there Chris gail go endorse and something hundreds of thousands of people go into Canada to watch cricket can imagine longer is long islander building a whole new stadium yes and the other thing is one more thing we have bilateral with industrialized companies that can assist us technical assistance so if you say a building a stadium the seeds we got from Sabina Park came from Atlanta in 1996 so we can get seed from Atlanta we can get ceiling from Germany we can do something but nobody's sitting down and planning lands and that is what upsets me yes and there are people here with expertise called at Chris are calling a name Chris Michael Hall Paul Wright all Dave Cameron is here I mean for crying out loud so let me see if I'm understanding you correctly Carol so the major issue for you is not necessarily that we are not or we did not bid to host this event but there does not seem to have been a planning process leading up to when the bidding process opened as as far as I understand it earlier this year and so when the process was opened it almost caught the government by surprise and that is your disappointment yeah it almost when you hear them by surprise and when you hear the JCA thought they said they did what they should have done cricket wrestling is also which is which is what no they what should they have done they presented their documentation based on when previous no they got it the government called them whoever it came to in the government at the office of the Prime Minister Court in France is on ear saying this I'm not making up the stories and he said he that's court in front of the Jamaica Cricket Association I would have met initially with the minister but somewhere something fell down so again put with the absence of the National Sports Council which is another bug there that has not met since 2016 had we had a National Sports Council these things gonna happen because that is where those things work and so it's not just about football cricket netball basketball it would have been a broad brush of what sports development looks like in Jamaica in terms of high school club and international what you can host what how we send away people and all that kind of a thing this industry has done tremendously well for Jamaica we're going to our 20th Olympics next year as a small country yeah I want to I want to make this point right well really put the question to you because a lot has been made about the fact that cricket is suffering in Jamaica because we've not seen CPL since 2019 the last time the West Indies were here was February last year I think it was no we will not have World Cup matches in 2024 but I also seem to remember not so long ago there was an opportunity to host a world on the 20 championships in track and field and at the time the government essentially said well we don't have the money to get that done at this time could it just be that we are an extremely poor state with a number of not just sports right because one of the things when you look across the rest of the Caribbean and you can correct me if I'm Bronco roll when you look at the rest of the Caribbean no other Caribbean country has the depth in quality across various sports at a world-class level that Jamaica has and so the government of Jamaica when it comes to sports has to spend a lot on a lot more disciplines to put it that way and could it just be that they don't have enough money we're not asking alright let me state clearly we're not asking the government to fund sports fully make it attractive for people to invest and that's what a business model it's a business model yes so the recommendations have been put out 10 million and under certain levels of incentive 10 to 20 11 to 20 and upwards but I'm saying let's put it together we we just came out of COVID are we coming out of COVID the children who are 5 to 11 will have because of lack of activity and I'm going back because I want to make the point we'll have issues with obesity and CDs and so on because we're not being active enough and so we're we're reducing the opportunity for engaging and competitive physical activity by not hosting what is the sense chance isn't it or Jamaica primarily isn't you think not hosting cricket does all of that because what with all the other sports no the young man who went to school with Fabian Allen him can't jump on a bus because and kids go watch Fabian him want to watch him in Savannah Park or Trinone that is how you build communities I understand that but what I'm trying to get to is do you think by not hosting matches in the cricket world a carpet extends all the way to say that it is part of what we do we have been who cricket at Savannah Park in 1928 we know in 2023 what is it that's stopping us and I'm saying we have successive governments have not been responsible enough to put an incentive package together and so we're here knowing 2023 we have three more Olympics probably in my lifetime left to go I'm saying put things in place I've made the recommendations boost chase boost SDF closed-down chase reorganize in sports and SDC and let's build a proper sport industry and every time something like this happened we have the conversation and we talk about it for nine days and it stops but this is not going to stop I'm happy that you just said successive governments have have have missed the ball or dropped the ball because up to this point people would have thought that you're bashing the current government yeah oh no I'm not no no everybody listen yes my three books have spanned from 2006 to now yes my blogs have been I'm probably on the earlier sports bloggers you can go back and check I've been costing everybody and then no but I have solutions okay because I've gone to other countries and implemented I lived in Antigua for four years yes and we have used the service stadium we use it for party to Michelle and conscience and all of them come on there but it also holds cricket we even use football and even you I think that's where Ricardo was going earlier on because I think the point he was trying to make and it fits in well with what you're saying no because your travels throughout the Caribbean that a lot of other Caribbean countries and like government investment and so on see cricket as a big I'm just saying cricket cricket discussion not sport yeah cricket as as the biggest opportunity or biggest platform for them to invest in sport whereas Jamaica it might not be so which is the point Ricardo was and I could say that patron it out for one number one I was in Grenada a couple times and when we're leaving out of Grenada Stadium I think it's Karate James Stadium yes after cricket is very doing soundcheck concert not a night but here's the thing though Carol in Grenada and Grenada maybe is not even the best example because they've had a lot of investment in both cricket and track and field but you think about Barbados where they've had great investment in cricket but not the same for track and field and not the same for other sports in Trinidad and Tobago they're road tennis though that hundreds of thousands of people gather and then you listen to lunch sing at nights you know I know this thing right here is Jamaica for example right and by the way let me just state clearly I am not defending anybody here no government no private sector company I am defending nobody at all I'm just trying to get as good an understanding as is possible so for example well I was going to say there are two major track and field meets in this country yearly but in truth it's really only one now because the Jamaica Invitational has has gone for quite some time one of the one of the things I would like to see right Carol Lance and Mariah is how much money governments across the Caribbean spend on sport and I would like to see how that compares for Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean because I think that would give us a better indication because if for example Jamaica is spending similarly to the rest of the Caribbean but they are spending across more sporting events then I don't know how much no advantage cricket has and CPL you see Mella dig up the things Talawa's have invested over the years 1.0 million in 2014 and it has gone up to 2.2 into Jamaica and then and so and that's is just Talawa's right but how do we know that there aren't better investments though and I don't know you know but I'm asking that question how do we know that we're a sporting nation better investments from all right we we have a lot more to talk about Carol your your segment should have ended now but we're going to take a quick break and come back just for a few minutes to give you an opportunity to make your point even stronger than you have so far so it's break time back with more after this on the Sportsmax zone yeah welcome back to the Sportsmax zone we're speaking with marketing consultant Carole Beckford and we are discussing no World Cup cricket at Sabina Park for the 2024 T20 tournament and the Minister of Sport in Jamaica Olivia Bavzi Grange released a statement at the weekend let's have a look at that at the end of our consultations with stakeholders it was agreed that Jamaica should prioritize investing in developing cricket from the grassroots to the high performance levels over putting in a formal bid it was not an easy decision and I very much understand and share the disappointment of fans who wanted to see T20 World Cup games being played in Jamaica however I could not just follow my heart as a responsible minister I am obliged to look beyond immediate gratification to sustainable sport development that will yield immeasurable rewards at all levels in Jamaica I had to pay attention to the cost benefit analysis especially in a circumstance of limited resources in order to play out to play our part in hopefully in the not too distant future fixing West Indus cricket we will prioritize investment in the local game in this regard and further to discussion with the Ministry of Finance I announced today that the government will invest Jamaican 100 million in the development of youth cricket and cricket in schools over the next five years this is in addition to our ambitious plan for the rehabilitation and development of Jamaica's sports infrastructure so that's it from the Minister of Sport in Jamaica the Honourable Olivia Bansey Grange Carol Beckford is still with us any quick response to what you just saw Carol no I think the investment in in high school sports and in this case cricket is always welcome and that even needs its own cost benefit analysis one I think we have we have divided ourselves so we have 24 clubs we don't have enough talent to do that so play 10 and get everybody so that's a whole lot of thing but I'm saying all right if we're going to have that discussion it must we must sit down with it with the sports people and plan out what we have when I was volleyball president 22 years ago young man I was in primary school when I when I submitted my development plan to the SDF yes we sat with the people there and we had to present so we have to say over the next four years what we're going to what we're going to host what we're going to go to how many athletes how many schools and so on and we had to do that that don't happen anymore and so I know for a fact it don't happen anymore and I'm saying something like cricket we're not talking and I'm not disrespecting our sport we're not talking about bachi or curling we're talking about cricket and so I'm saying the total economic impact of cricket on Jamaica when people come for cricket five-day cricket them stay 11 days average sport tourists hold on and average sport tourists spend 320 dollars a day I've done the research them come for seven days and then drive go ochi and they're adventurers they tour that research is sitting on somebody's desk in the tourist board and our jam pro and I'm saying had somebody carefully thought about this call michael hall call chris therein if you don't want to call me we could I recommend a holy pot of people call kishore shallow the cricket west in this president same upset that Jamaica not even a month because you know what we look geographically even at the flights because of how quickly it can get here the equipment move we used to work at jump room was the film commissioners on a secret matter we know that was my job and so I'm saying you know it can't is that them take with you preke and them not it is appalling lands and that is what upsets me you know it better the minister didn't say listen we're not bidding but we are gonna have under 20 crickets from all across the world every nation that play we're gonna have them under 20 we'll put them up a ui which costs we less and we carry them through Kingston carry them go down the river and we are gonna do something fantastic because we not always have to be you know but don't make those excuses not cost-benefit analysis never do we know that fair fact and if it was done let's go let's debate it so here's the thinker role if the government had said the truth is right now we just don't have the money to bid for this world t20 tournament that that's it flat out yeah would you have accepted that oh absolutely we remember you know she also said a statement came out to say them asking them to extend the time don't forget well Johnny grave told us on this show on Friday it was that the deadline was extended three times in the hope that a bid would come in from Jamaica everybody knows that Jamaica is the place I'm telling you we geographically place in the center of the world by design it quicker to come here it easier to come here we have whole for access we can run the Miami and come back and is a miracle is the Americas and it is in cities that have more Jamaicans than anywhere else in the world yeah you know something I say why wouldn't even one much lunch no man no no that is not nice I'm telling you and there are so many things and I know they they they are people from the statistics department at in the units are sitting on and say okay yeah this is what it could have cost wouldn't I'm not saying we would have earned enough to cover the cost after the days but next year when the Indians have come now you know how Mr. Bartlett have to go work India is that's it 21 tourism minister Bartlett I just want to quick comment from you yeah before you continue though about the 100 million Jamaican dollars that the government is saying that will be pumped into schools over the next five years that's approximately US 645,000 does that grab you as something of impact um it can and again what are the conditions for the implementation is is it strictly in education what aspect you know where's the plan for it just to say we're going into 100 million means nothing to me in this stage what is it going to do how is it going to impact are you going to support the efforts of our greats to help Chris Gale for example to increase what he's doing at Lucas and this thing um pressed down down at Kensington are you going to fix the ground the other thing we do you know we don't have no good venues you know so our athletes are still getting banned talent which is another show but Subway in the park is in disrepair at the moment as far as cricket is concerned and so is Trelawney well that has been so for a decade right so we have problems but you know I give kudos to the athletes they're confident to represent us well we have more Jamaicans playing cricket now on average than even when the greats in other words it's consistent the numbers haven't really decreased and your research has thrown that because the general feeling is that there's been a decline no there hasn't been okay so we don't have as much stars so we don't there's only one universe boss but you have you have the young boys that just come back from on the 19 the Heinz boys Jordan Johnson Dominic McKenzie all of them you'd you have Fabian Shane Rockman Stephanie Taylor um Shady Martin we have trash coaching we have Gibbs Williams and Andrew Richard sorry Andrew Richard forgive me in other words we have more Jamaicans involved in the business of cricket now so it is growing and it never just that I was one of his coaches for media when he was Andrew and on the 19 yes we have them coaching Tamar Lambert his summer coach and they all come back and I'm saying part of the model is to ensure that the event part of it remains part of the business model yeah without a time team I know I know but we need to find out how she does all those things that she does we should invite Carol back on this show before the week is over would you return Carol she's yeah she would spend the night she likes the studio I love the studio by the way guys congrats on your new studio I just absolutely love it all right break time