Going north
Dehring reveals CWI ownership stake in Canadian T20 league and franchise
Cricket West Indies (CWI) is going beyond traditional sponsorship and broadcasting models, taking an ownership stake in Canada’s T20 cricket market as part of a series of “trailblazing” initiatives aimed at creating new revenue streams and opportunities for West Indies players. CWI chief executive officer Chris Dehring speaking on the Mason and Guest Radio Show recently, revealed that the regional governing body has taken ownership in the Canadian T20 league and intends to own its own franchise.
The move, he explained, is part of a deliberate attempt to move CWI into markets where the commercial opportunities are considerably larger than those available in the Caribbean. Dehring said Canada represents a US$2 trillion market, with companies there having marketing budgets far beyond what is generally available to Caribbean businesses. He cited two Canadian companies CWI is talking to, with marketing budgets of US$780 million and US$1.2 billion, respectively.
The strategy, therefore, is not simply about staging another T20 competition but about CWI owning properties through which it can access new commercial markets. He said CWI had decided to become “much more commercially ambitious”, cutting expenditure associated with what he described as the old way of doing things while reinvesting in initiatives aimed at future growth. Against that background, Dehring said CWI’s response was to invest in properties and markets that could produce new income while also contributing to cricket development. “We decided that we had to really take a much more commercially ambitious approach,” he said. “We’re reinventing and reinvesting in things that we believe are the future.”