No govt safety net
Dehring: CWI cannot rely on regional governments for funding
Cricket West Indies (CWI) chief executive officer Chris Dehring has warned that the regional body cannot rely on Caribbean governments to provide the financial support needed to sustain West Indies cricket, despite previous commitments and initiatives designed to generate revenue.
Dehring revealed that CWI had secured Caricom approval for a regional lottery, but the initiative failed to get off the ground after the organization was unable to obtain a single operating license from the individual Caribbean countries. He also disclosed that CWI’s partnership with BetCage, which was announced as a potential new revenue stream, has so far produced only a small amount of money because the betting company has encountered similar licensing difficulties across the region.
“We had a Caricom approval of a regional lottery. But we then had to go to every individual country to get the licence,” Dehring said during an interview on the Mason and Guest Radio Show. “We beat the bushes, went to every single country. We never got a single licence.”