The Caribbean Unity Dividend

The Caribbean Unity Dividend

Part 1

ISSUE No 15

At the State of the Tourism Industry Conference in Barbados, Cricket West Indies CEO Chris Dehring laid bare an uncomfortable truth: West Indies cricket spends millions enriching the region’s tourism sector — US$82 million on airlift and US$120 million on accommodation over fifteen years — yet receives almost nothing back.

“Tourism reaps tremendous benefits from cricket, but CWI is left carrying the financial burden,” Dehring said.

He’s right. But should it stop with tourism? If cricket fills hotels, fuels airlines, and keeps the Caribbean brand alive, what about the rest of Corporate Caribbean?
Maybe the question isn’t who benefits from West Indies cricket, but who doesn’t?

Chris Dehring’s remarks were not just a plea — they were a mirror. Cricket has always been more than a sport in the Caribbean; it’s a living expression of regional identity. And like the University of the West Indies, it is one of the few institutions that binds fifteen nations under one banner.

Together, CWI and UWI form the twin engines of Caribbean unity: one nurturing intellect, the other inspiring emotion.
Yet both institutions are underfunded, overstretched, and too often treated as charity rather than strategy.

The irony is clear. The same corporations that celebrate Caribbean pride — banks, telecoms, rum companies, insurers, airlines — depend on the idea of the West Indies.

The shared identity built through cricket and education, but those who profit most from that identity are contributing the least to sustain it.

That’s where a bold concept emerges: a Caribbean Unity Levy — or a Corporate Caribbean Compact.

Imagine if regional companies were required, or at least incentivized, to contribute a fraction of their profits to a jointly managed fund supporting CWI and UWI — the two bodies that have done more than any others to shape the Caribbean’s collective consciousness.

This wouldn’t be a tax in the punitive sense. It would be a shared investment in regional sustainability, a practical recognition that economic and cultural capital are inseparable.

Other nations have long understood this. Britain’s National Lottery sustains its sporting ecosystem. France taxes sports broadcasting to fund federations. Brazil allows corporations to redirect taxes toward athletic and educational programs.
If these large economies can institutionalize support for their identity-driven institutions, why can’t the Caribbean?

As Kieran Powell recently said, “It’s time to unite.”
And if dollars are fickle, then maybe unity — financial, cultural, and intellectual — needs to be enforced by design.

If we lose the West Indies cricket team and the University that carries its name across campuses, what will remain to remind us who we are?

Community Question of the week

Chris Dehring has called on tourism. But should the duty to sustain our regional identity stop there?
Should Caribbean corporations — from banks to broadcasters — contribute a small levy or pledge to support CWI and UWI, the institutions that give their brands meaning?