West Indies legend, Sir Clive Lloyd has suggested that Cricket West Indies (CWI) needs assistance to reduce costs associated with playing cricket in the Caribbean as it tried to stay afloat amid financial turbulence exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sir Clive, a former West Indies captain, contended that given the current high cost of travel and hotel accommodation, it was difficult for CWI to make a profit.
“We don’t make any money playing at home anymore. And that is because of costs. We travel by plane, we stay at hotels in the high season. We have to try and get somebody to look after that,” he said on the Mason and Guest radio show in Barbados recently.
“We can’t go to places to play Test cricket where you’re going to make any money. We can play One-Day games in some of these places, which would be much better for West Indies instead of taking them to places where you know that nobody is going to come for the four or five days. Cricket is very expensive so we have to look at all these things, Sir Clive said.
CWI, already in a tough financial situation, has been significantly impacted by the pandemic which has forced the postponement of some revenue-generating series that are now in jeopardy of being called off.
Recently CWI President, Ricky Skerritt said the situation had plunged CWI’s “already poor financial state into ICU” and the urgency of the situation required cost-cutting and not simply coast-saving.
