By Neto Baptiste
Legendary West Indies fast bowler, Sir Curtly Ambrose, believes that although having a Caribbean Premier League (CPL) franchise based here in Antigua, cost may be a major factor working against that dream becoming a reality.
“It’s all good and well for people to say let’s have a franchise, which would be nice because, obviously, the Hawksbills were in Antigua for the first couple of years and that was really nice. But it’s more than just having a franchise because you have to look at your finances as well, because if you don’t have the money it may prove difficult to have a franchise. If somebody who has money wants to be an owner, then that’s a bit different, but it is not so easy as people think,” he said.
Sir Curtly, who was part of the coaching staff for the successful Jamaica Tallawahs that won the 2022 title over Barbados Royals on Friday, added that, cost aside, having a franchise based here could open doors for more players, much like what happened during a once famous T20 competition held here in Antigua.
“When you go back years ago when the Stanford T20 came in, there were a lot of cricketers around the region we never heard of, or who never had an opportunity to showcase their skills, and that particular tournament brought a lot of people forward. So, yes, I think these franchises could unearth a lot of young talent that may struggle to make their regional squad, so I think it’s a good thing to have,” he said.
Tallawahs defeated Royals by eight wickets in Friday’s final played at Providence Stadium in Guyana to win their third title after having lifted the trophy in 2013 and 2016.
Sir Curtly said unity and determination were major factors in the team’s success.
“We, as a group, were very close together and we took that negative energy from most and turned that into positive. We knew that we had a good enough team to win this tournament and even though we had some ups and downs during the preliminaries, we stuck together and we kept believing we could go all the way, and we did it in style,” the former player said.
The CPL announced in February 2015 that a newly formed St Kitts and Nevis franchise would replace Antigua Hawksbills in Caribbean Premier League 2015. The CPL further reported that the Hawksbills franchise, which was earlier sponsored by Virgin Atlantic, did not have an owner at the time.
In 2019, Minister of Sport Daryl Matthew said the high cost associated with running a franchise is a major deterrent.