By Neto Baptiste
Despite a successful Cool & Smooth T20 Explosion in which Empire Nation emerged winners in last Saturday’s final, chief organiser of the tournament Dario Barthley, said they will focus on ways to improve the all-round quality going forward.
Barthley pointed to the area of promotion as one aspect that could be improved ahead of next year’s tournament.
“While the promotion was upped a little this year, I still think we are lacking a little bit in that area, but we think we’ve found a few solutions to assist us with that because we definitely think that the product was of the standard that we want everybody to get the chance to see it, but on some days there weren’t the amount of people in the stands like we would have hoped, so I think that’s a big takeaway, and there are many other little things that we definitely need to improve on to ensure we can deliver a better product,” he said.
The organiser however credited the involvement of online statistics compilation company, Cricket District, for an improved online engagement with fans.
“They have over two million followers over the three platforms they use to engage their fans, and that has really taken the tournament to another level in terms of eyes that are on the tournament; and just the involvement of some of the players and how interested they were in terms of reposting some of our stuff, promoting it to persons from their home country, and that’s the overseas players in particular, and ensuring that they engage with the tournament as a big tournament. I think that’s what really happened this year, everyone had the tournament in their minds as a big T20 tournament, and they really showed that through how they engaged with it,” he said.
Barthley also thanked spectators for their support throughout the tournament.
“All of our sponsors yes, but also, all of the fans, and I think it was the first time I’ve seen that amount of fans stay around for the closing ceremony meaning that something was keeping them interested. Obviously the game would have played a part in that, but I think the support this year has just been phenomenal,” he said.
Empire beat Blackhawks by 46 runs in the final at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium to lift their first Cool & Smooth T20 title.
