By: Jemima Holmes
Over the next few days, Hero CPL and Guyanese stakeholders in the sport of cricket will go to the drawing board, with the hosting rights being the hot topic.
If negotiations go right, Guyana could very well play hosts for the Hero CPL 2022. This revelation was made by Hero CPL CEO Pete Russell today during an exclusive interview with INews.
Russell divulged that negotiations to have the tournament hosted in the Land of Many Waters are currently in the early stages. However, there are similar plans for other Caribbean territories in mind, with shared hosting also being on the cards.
“It’s no secret that we love playing games here, you know, the fans here are fantastic. Guyana is a team that has contributed so much to CPL, I mean they’ve been incredibly unlucky not winning it yet.
“Yeah, there have been discussions, as you rightly point out, they’re in the early stages. We’re also having discussions obviously elsewhere because there’s interest in the CPL final, not just in Guyana but in other countries,” he explained.
“So, it’s an ongoing process. I think its no secret that I would like to see the final playing here one day, so let’s see,” he added.
On whether or not the Hero CPL will switch up their fully-vaccinate, 50% capacity fan viewership for the 2022 edition, Russell says that will be determined closer to the start of the event, which is set for late August.
“Very dependent on the host nation. We work very closely with the CMO in each island or country and you know, we’re quite a long way out now, it’s end of August when we’re looking to start the games.
For us to make decisions of fully vaccinated or capacity sizes, I think it’s too premature. Obviously for us, we want to get back to full stadiums but this pandemic is, you’ve got to treat it with utmost respect. So, we’ll just have to see where we are closer to the tournament.”
In the meantime, fans can look forward to the Hero CPL draft, set for May, while play retention lists are due in March.
“It’ll be in May. The teams, as we speak, are already looking at retentions, look at who they’ll retain from last year. They will have the ability to sign their own international players, so I know they’re in the market doing that right now. So, we should have a pretty good idea in the next month or so, how the teams are shaping up.”
“That’s what’ s exciting, because this year certain players will move around, I would think. So, that’s always good.”
This year’s tournament will mark the 10th edition of the Regional T20 Franchise tournament.
