The Biggest Party in Sport and The UWI investment

AS WE look back on 10 years of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), the overwhelming feelings are of pride and achievement. The tournament sits as the second-most watched T20 league in the world with a well-earned reputation for the quality of the cricket and fan experience.

‘The Biggest Party in Sport’ is a tagline that sets the standard very high, but fans from across the Caribbean have helped make it a reality. I have been lucky enough to watch cricket all over the world, and the roar you hear at a CPL match competes with any stadium from around the globe.

The COVID-19 pandemic made things difficult for all of us, and it certainly created a very different CPL in both 2020 and 2021. The complete lack of fans in Trinidad in 2020 and a reduced capacity in St Kitts in 2021 meant it was a strange experience for those of us who are used to pumping crowds at CPL matches. To see them return in 2022, along with the tournament visiting more than one host country, was the perfect way to celebrate 10 years of CPL.

Planning is well under way for the 2023 tournament, but the time is right for some retrospection and a look at some of the successes. Three consecutive years of a total viewership of over half a billion, with a record 721.8 million in 2022. Close to a billion US dollars of economic impact on the region. The providing of a platform for the best cricketers from the region to showcase what they are capable of before going on to success elsewhere in the world.

And it isn’t just on the field that CPL has offered the opportunity for young people to set a platform for success. CPL has had a long and successful association with The University of the West Indies (UWI) to offer internships to talented students to take part in the planning and execution of the event. This has led to a number of these students coming back to work with CPL in paid roles and even more going on to having success in journalism, sports marketing and other associated industries.

One of the great strengths of CPL is that it is always striving for bigger and better. The creation of the Women’s Caribbean Premier League (WCPL) is something that has been a long time in the planning, and it was a great moment to see it become a reality in 2022. That, in addition to the 6IXTY, a T10 tournament that is a joint venture between CPL and Cricket West Indies (CWI), lays an excellent foundation for a second decade of success.

Fans can look forward to an expanded WCPL in 2023 as well as the number of venues that the tournament visits increasing. We will strive to improve the fan experience and ensure that the quality of cricket is of the highest standard.

We will continue to work with tourism boards from across the region to sell the Caribbean as a must-visit destination to our huge global audience. We will continue to have a positive impact on the region by creating jobs, filling hotel rooms and attracting visitors to attend CPL matches.

We are also continuing to firm up and expand our partnership with The UWI. In 2022 we created a Sport Marketing Course that saw students gain certification as well as take part in an internship programme. This pilot running of the course was a huge success with students in St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana taking part. The plan is for this to be expanded both in terms of scope and scale in future years as CPL looks to invest in young people across the Caribbean.

The plan for the internships in 2023 is to give the students involved an even more rounded experience at the tournament with the chance to spend time with the teams running cricket operations, sponsorship, social media, marketing and public relations.

It is the duty of all those who operate in the Caribbean to do what they can to upskill the next generation, not least because this is the best way to futureproof your business. We are very much looking forward to receiving applications for the 2023 UWI-CPL Sport Marketing course and working with the interns from that programme.

Sport Pulse and Sport Matters are fortnightly columns highlighting advances that impact Sport. We look forward to your continued readership. Peter Miller is the Head of PR and Communications for the Caribbean Premier League