Muckraking journalism…

In a totally unwarranted attack against Dr Ranjisinghi Ramroop, Chairman of the NEW GPC INC, which owns the Guyana Amazon Warriors T-20 cricket team, the Kaieteur News (KN) continued the vendetta it launched since 2008, when the Guyana Times newspaper was founded. In a screaming front page headline on Wednesday, the KN claimed that Finance Minister Winston Jordan said the “Govt will not pay Ramroop’s $100M CPL invoice”. In the story, however, there is no direct quote from the Finance Minister making that scurrilous charge. When contacted by Guyana Times, Minister Jordan said flatly, “I did not make any such statement. I do not know Dr Ramroop. I referred to an invoice from the Caribbean Premier League.”

CPL

Kaieteur News Publisher Glenn Lall

Asked for a comment on the allegation, Dr Ramroop said, “The people running the Kaieteur News are either totally ignorant about the nature of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) or they are up to their usual sensationalisation to sell papers. The CPL is an overseas-based corporation. It was made clear when the CPL was launched that it is an independent corporation based overseas that has allocated seven franchises – originally six – to various territories. This information is even on Wiki! If they do not have reporters that understand how business operates, they could have gone online. We only own the Guyana Amazon Warriors – not the CPL and I am sure that the Finance Minister did not make the assertion the KN claims he did.”

The Wikipedia article Dr Ramroop alluded to states: “On December 13, 2012, the [West Indies Cricket Board] WICB announced that they had finalised an agreement with Ajmal Khan, Founder of Verus International, a Barbados-based merchant bank, for the funding of the new franchise-based Twenty20 league to be launched in 2013. It was then expected that the new Caribbean Premier League was likely to comprise six Caribbean city-based franchises as opposed to the current territorial set-up, with the majority of the players are to come from the West Indies. As part of the agreement, the WICB will receive additional funding from Verus International for additional retainer contracts for players in addition to the 20 annual retainer contracts the Board currently funds.”

Benefits

Tourism Minister Cathy Hughes

What is also significant is the substantial investment made by individual franchisees, such as the Guyana Amazon Warriors, that impact on the economy and society. If for instance the NEW GPC had not made the investment on the cricket team, Guyana could have reaped none of the benefits it has and will continue to enjoy. By sponsoring four local young Guyanese cricketers to be with the team, while offering them remuneration, it is an investment in developing local talent that benefits the nation and ultimately, the Region.

Because the NEW GPC is a unit of Queens Atlantic Investment Incorporated (QAII) which also owns a full media house – television, radio and press – the Warriors have also benefited from a tremendous amount of publicity which from an opportunity-cost standpoint, costs the franchisee millions of dollars which go unmentioned. The CPL was able to attract as investors a multinational corporation like Hero and mega Bollywood Stars like Shah Rukh Khan, has been a boost to the image of the entire Caribbean as an investment destination.

Payments by Governments

But in terms of the payments by the Guyana Government to the CPL, this is in line with similar payments made by other participating Caribbean territories for the concrete benefits provided by the tournament, in addition to the invaluable value of bringing together the people of the Caribbean. All Governments understand the benefits of publicity for their tourism industry, even if the KN does not.

Finance Minister Winston Jordan

The CPL has since launched two widely successful tournaments in the Caribbean during 2013 and 2014, which was broadcast across the cricket playing world, reaching an audience of 800 million people. The third tournament is presently underway. An independent Economic Impact Study revealed last December that the Caribbean Premier League injected into the Caribbean region’s economy a whopping US$166 million during the 2014 tournament. This injection was a significant increase of 58 per cent, compared to the tournament’s economic impact in 2013.

Findings in the report showed:

* Incremental spend by regional and international fans totalled US$47.4 million (excluding accommodation and airfare)

* An estimated 217,176 regional and international spectators watched CPL 2014 live

* The international TV audience increased to 65 million in 2014 from 36 million in 2013, with 29 broadcasters from around the world airing the games live

* Over 21,500 international visitors (approximately 10 per cent of total spectators), attended CPL 2014, spending US$7.9 million

* Thousands of new jobs were created in tourism and travel across the Region by CPL and more than 156,000 jobs positively impacted

* The tournament’s high profile international broadcast media campaign (which encouraged tourism in the Region) generated US$4.47 million in advertising value

The study conducted by SMG-Insight/YouGov showed a breakout across each of the eight markets as follows:

* Antigua and Barbuda – US$13.8 million

* Barbados – US$28.7 million

* Grenada – US$13.3 million

* Guyana – US$24.5 million

* Jamaica – US$25.1 million

* St Kitts and Nevis – US$26.3million

* St Lucia – US$13.9 million

* Trinidad and Tobago – US$21.1 million

With an investment of over US$25 million to date, the CPL is the world’s second biggest T20 cricket tournament – behind the Indian Premier League – and is set to continue growing in 2015 and beyond. CPL, in partnership with the WICB, continues to invest in the development of the game, providing opportunities for players and fans to access world-class cricket in the Caribbean.

According to the study, Grenada, for instance, for the estimated US$13.3 million it earned, invested US$500,000 for the rights to host the opening games held in July 2014. The Government of Grenada pointed out the benefits reaped: “Video clips of Grenadian culture and tropical beauty were broadcasted via television to an audience of nearly 800 million people in Grenada’s traditional markets of North America, the United Kingdom, the Caribbean region and other non-traditional markets such as South Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.”

Almost double the benefits for Grenada ($24.5 million versus $13.3 million) were enjoyed by Guyana for the same $500,000 that it was billed.

Contracts

In the KN story, Finance Minister Winston Jordan claimed that he had an invoice from CPL but not a contract. When contacted, former acting Tourism Minister Irfaan Ali however confirmed that there was in fact a contract. He confirmed that in addition to the wider exposure garnered for Guyana’s tourism product, there was also a 15-minute infomercial broadcast to the international audience of 800 million.

The present Tourism Minister Cathy Hughes said that while she could not pronounce conclusively on the issue, she does believe that CPL does provide such an advertising service to the participating countries for which they pay in return.

Persecution

Asked for a closing comment, Dr Ramroop said, “We have provided live top-level cricket to our people who otherwise would be starved for the game they love so much. In addition to the CPL benefits, if the Warriors win the tournament, they can go on to the Champions League and expose Guyana further.”