THE WEEKEND NATION article of June 26 under the headline CPL Disaster raises both a number of questions and issues.
Firstly, it begs the question: how does playing Caribbean Premier League (CPL) cricket in Barbados in front of big crowds could result in losses for the investors?
Considering that they gain money from television rights, it makes the situation more hard to understand. The Barbados dollar is strong and this adds to an even more baffling situation. Yet it seems that we need outsiders to organise our CPL for us unlike the Indians who have their Indian Premier League.
These so-called investors always seem to have a common goal – bleed the country both of its taxpayers’ money and any private funds they can secure. Such cases are common in Africa.
In Zambia, the private company mining the copper pays very little to the government but strangely, the government has to use this money to pay for the company’s electricity. The company’s bold claim is that it provides work for the people. However, the salary bill is so small that the government is paying the company to make a large profit. In the mineral-rich Congo, the deals are kept secret but Kofi Annan, the respected former UN secretary general, maintains that Africa is being robbed of its resources.
There is an issue for the people of the Caribbean. Due to divisions among the states, the investors can always threaten to leave, with the knowledge that their neighbours are always willing to extend a warm welcome. This was certainly the case with Antigua where the CPL investors pulled out and moved to St Kitts and Nevis.
These divisions often become cracks. What do Canadians know about cricket anyway? It should be the Caribbean islands that should be pooling together and hosted the CPL.
– CATHY CANDACE BELGRAVE
