Kaieteur News scandalises CPL

….puts words into Finance Minister’s mouth

In a totally unwarranted attack against  Dr Ranjisinghi Ramroop, CEO of the NewGPC, which owns the Guyana Amazon Warriors T-20 cricket team, the Kaieteur News headlined on Wednesday  that Finance Minister Winston Jordan said the “Govt will not pay Ramroop’s Gy$100M CPL invoice”. In the story, however, there is no quote that the Finance Minister, in fact, made any such assertion and after being contacted verified he did not mention Dr Ramroop.

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. 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! 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 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.”

What is also significant is the substantial investment made by individual Franchisees such as the Guyana Amazon Warriors that impacts on the economy and the 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 talent to be with the team while offering them remuneration, is an investment in developing local talent that benefits the nation.

Because the NewGPC is a unit of a QAII which also owns a full media house – TV, Radio and Press- the Warriors have also benefitted from a tremendous amount of publicity which from an opportunity cost standpoint costs the franchisee millions of dollars which go unmentioned. That the CPL was able to attract as investors a multi-national corporation like Hero and mega Bollywood Stars like Shahrukh Khan, has been a boost to the entire Caribbean’s image as an investment destination.

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.

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