The International Cricket Council (ICC) Finance & Commercial Affairs Committee headed by Jay Shah is learnt to be in the process of raising a strong objection to the budgets for the upcoming T20 World Cup in West Indies and the USA.
Some committee members are not pleased with the way budgets have being overshot for expansion and construction of temporary facilities in the USA for the multi-nation event.
Grand Prairie in Dallas, Broward County in Florida and Nassau County in New York are the three venues shortlisted for the tournament and significant amount of expansion work will be carried out in Dallas and Florida while the temporary facility in New York will be built from scratch.
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Sources close to developments say the money spent in New York has irked the global body’s finance committee as the venue would be razed down just a week after culmination of the T20 World Cup. The committee is not pleased with ICC head of events Chris Tetley in particular, given that there appear to be no checks and balances where spending is concerned. BCCI secretary Shah chairs the committee which also has Ross McCollum, Indra Nooyi, Mike Baird and Tavengwa Mukuhlani on the board.
There is still no clarity over how ICC is actually funding the upgrades in the USA. The hosting agreement, which is signed between ICC and a Full Member (Cricket West Indies in this case) host nation, clearly states that all upgrades will be carried out by the host nation and the global body doesn’t pay. Just like it happened during the 50-over World Cup in India where the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) footed the bill for all the infrastructure work across the venues.
So where exactly is the money coming from?
And will USA, an Associate Member in the hosting agreement, get any hosting fees?
If not, will ICC pay for those upgrades?
If yes, are other Full Members of the global body in agreement to this?
These are the basic questions which have remained unanswered till date.
A senior ICC official tells CricketNext that there is not even a Local Organising Committee (LoC) in the USA too and just an “event delivery team in the form of a not-for-profit company to deliver operational and logistical requirements” for the multi-nation event. “A lot of money” is being spent in the USA for the temporary infrastructure upgrades and construction to make the three venues ICC’s own stringent checklist for multi-nation tournament venues.
“A lot of money is being spent in the USA to bring venues close to standards laid down by the ICC themselves. Florida and Dallas venues are ready but still need a lot of upgrades to make them meet ICC’s venue checklist, and lot of money is at play. The major concern is the venue in New York which would be built from scratch and will be brought down just a week after the tournament ends,” say those tracking developments.
When CricketNext reached out to the global body with a very basic query on the funding of the upgrades in the USA, the communications team, which is generally very prompt with their responses, stayed silent. A source, however, revealed the it’s the Cricket West Indies, the signatory of the host agreement which is leading the project and USA Cricket has no controls on funding.
“We do not comment on commercials of any event. As you already know CWI is the signatory to the host agreement and are leading the project working closely with the team in the USA. USA Cricket are an Associate Member with no controls on funding,” says a senior ICC official.
Since USA Cricket are an Associate Member, the officials of the body are not aware of most of the work being carried out or planned in the region. During an interaction with CricketNext earlier this year, a senior USA Cricket official, who is no longer on the board, revealed that all planning and execution is being done by the ICC and local USA Cricket officials only played a role during various venue recce trips late last year.
“We have no control over anything and everything is being done by the ICC and their different teams. We accompanied them during recce trips exploring open and green spaces in the region but the ICC was in command of all those things. Even if there is any funding or hosting fees involved, we have no wind of it,” a senior USA Cricket official had said.
The schedule for the T20 World Cup is expected to be out soon and the construction work for the modular and temporary facility in New York will only begin early in the New Year.
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