Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board eager to host 2024 T20 World Cup matches

President of the TT Cricket Board Azim Bassarath - AYANNA KINSALE
President of the TT Cricket Board Azim Bassarath - AYANNA KINSALE

IF Cricket West Indies (CWI) invites bids from Caribbean nations to host matches of the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) will fully support any submission made by the government to have such top-flight matches contested on local soil.

So says Azim Bassarath, TTCB president, who remains hopeful CWI rolls out an offer to regional territories to bid for host-nation status at the prestigious T20 event.

Bassarath applauded the ICC’s decision on Tuesday to award USA Cricket and CWI joint hosting rights for the 2024 tourney. However, he hopes TT would be given an opportunity to bid for matches as this event also serves as the first major ICC tournament to be held in the US.

“We are hoping that CWI will invite bids from the different territories and I’m quite sure our government will submit a bid because this is a major mega-event. We have just seen what transpired in United Arab Emirates (T20 World Cup).

“I’m quite sure if we are invited to submit a bid, the TTCB is going to support the government in submitting a bid so we can host some of those matches.

“I definitely feel it can bring great benefit to TT having the games streamed live across the world. This can only do well for us to expose TT for who we are,” he said.

Bassarath said that a lot of people and organisations have been targeting the US market and this is an ideal opportunity for USA Cricket to latch on to.

He continued, “Given the opportunity to co-host with West Indies, I think USA Cricket can take-off now. The US is filled with cricket fans that travel the world to see cricket. Now, the cricket is coming to them and I think cricket will be a big thing in the US in the near future.”

This would be the first time the T20 World Cup will be hosted in the US and the fourth occasion the WI will host a global ICC cricket event; the last being in 2010.

TT Olympic Committee president Brian Lewis also chimed in on the ICC’s historic decision saying the 2024 competition provides an avenue for the sport’s (T20 male and female) chances of being featured, for the first time, at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.

The region will also play host to the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup which begins in January next year.

Bassarath added, “We haven’t hosted a major event since 2010 and we will be hosting the ICC Under-19 World Cup in January.

“But the Men’s T20 World Cup is one of the biggest cricket events in the world, a super mega-event, in which all the international cricket stars will be here participating. I feel the government is going to bid and I believe we will get some games.”

The partnership between USA Cricket and CWI is geared towards growing the game in the Americas by re-energising the sport with a new generation of fans in the West Indies and unlocking cricket’s potential in the USA.

A recent CWI statement said that the partnership and bid planning, which started close to two years ago, aim to deliver “ground-breaking fan and matchday experiences that combine Caribbean carnival with the best of American “sportainment” and breaking new ground on digital innovation and integration.

“The longer term goal is to accelerate cricket’s growth as the world’s Number 2 sport driving towards mainstream status in the United States and enhancing cricket’s prospect of inclusion in the Olympic Games, to be hosted in Los Angeles in 2028.”

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