West Indies Built Cricket’s Past. Can It Help Build Its Future?

West Indies Built Cricket’s Past. Can It Help Build Its Future?

Issue no 42

There is a debt in world cricket that has never really been settled.

Not a financial debt in the traditional sense. A historical one.

For close to two decades, the West Indies were not merely the best cricket team in the world. They were one of the sport’s great attractions.

They travelled. They entertained. They filled grounds. They produced some of cricket’s most recognisable athletes.

Wherever that great West Indies team went, people wanted to watch.

Sir Clive Lloyd put it simply in a recent Cricexec interview alongside Guyana President Irfaan Ali: everybody wanted West Indies to play because when they did, money was made.

But the economics of cricket were very different then.

There was no IPL.

There were no billion-dollar franchise valuations.

Broadcast rights had nowhere near today's value.

Sponsorship revenues were smaller.

And perhaps most importantly for the Caribbean, international cricket largely operated on a globetrotter model.

The valuable team travelled.

The host market monetised the tour.

West Indies could arrive in London or Melbourne as the biggest attraction in world cricket, put people in seats and create enormous interest.

But much of the economic activity happened where the cricket was being played.

That mattered because West Indies cricket represented a collection of small economies.

Even while producing arguably the most dominant cricket team the world had seen, the Caribbean never had the population, domestic television market or corporate base necessary to fully monetise that dominance.

The product was West Indian.

Much of the value was captured elsewhere.

That is why I understand President Ali's argument that cricket owes West Indies its full due.

But forty years later, what does getting our due actually mean?

I don't think West Indies cricket should be asking for a cheque.

We don't need a loan.

We don't need charity.

And we should not spend the next generation reminding world cricket what it owes us.

There is something far more valuable available.

Opportunity.

If West Indies cricket helped build one era of cricket's global growth, give us the opportunity to help build the next one.

And this time, allow the region to participate properly in the value it helps create.

The opportunity is sitting on both sides of us.

North America and South America.

This isn't theoretical for me.

I have played cricket in Cayman.

I have played in Bermuda.

I have played in Canada.

And the first time I walked onto a field as West Indies captain was not in Bridgetown, Kingston, Port of Spain or Georgetown.

It was in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

On August 27, 2016, I captained West Indies for the first time against India at Central Broward Regional Park. It was a remarkable game, 489 runs in 40 overs, and we won by one run.

Even then, cricket was trying to work out what America could become.

But my experiences across the region have also taught me something else.

We don't have to invent cricket in the Americas. It is already there.

Canada's cricket history dates back centuries. The first recognised international cricket match was played between Canada and the United States in New York in 1844, more than 30 years before the first Test match. Canada has since appeared at four men's ODI World Cups and returned to the Men's T20 World Cup in 2024.

Bermuda qualified for the 2007 Cricket World Cup, an extraordinary achievement for a country with a population that was around 60,000 at the time.

Cayman has had organised cricket for generations, joined the ICC system in the 1990s and even competed in the West Indies regional one-day competition in 2000.

The ICC itself currently lists 17 members across the Americas, stretching from Canada and the United States through the Caribbean and into Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru.

So perhaps we are asking the wrong question.

Instead of constantly asking:

How do we introduce cricket to the Americas?

Maybe the better question is:

How do we properly back the cricket that is already there?

And what if West Indies cricket was placed at the forefront of doing it?

When cricket talks about North America, the conversation quickly becomes the United States.

Understandably.

The numbers are enormous.

The US alone has around 340 million people and a US$28.75 trillion economy. Add Canada and the two countries represent more than 381 million people and almost US$31 trillion in annual GDP.

That is a staggering commercial market sitting within reach of the Caribbean.

But I think cricket's North American opportunity is even bigger than trying to establish another professional league in major American cities.

There is a tourism opportunity sitting beside it.

And that is where West Indies cricket becomes particularly interesting.

The Bahamas is only around 50 miles from the coast of Florida and welcomed a record 12.5 million visitors in 2025. More than 1.8 million were stopover visitors.

In the Cayman Islands, the United States alone produced 370,093 stayover visitors in 2025, making America Cayman's largest source market.

Then think about Bermuda, Jamaica, Antigua, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and my own paradise that I get to call home, Barbados.

These are different markets with different tourism propositions.

But collectively, we have something cricket should be thinking much more creatively about.

A cricket tourism corridor.

The Caribbean already knows how to sell sunshine, beaches, food, culture and experiences to North American consumers.

Why can't cricket become another reason to travel?

Imagine a calendar rather than isolated tournaments.

Youth competitions during school holidays.

Women's tournaments.

Masters cricket.

College cricket.

Pre-season camps.

Franchise events.

Corporate competitions.

High-performance exchanges.

International series packaged around destination experiences.

Cricket festivals that combine sport, music, food and culture.

This does not require every event to sell 30,000 tickets to work.

Tourism economies understand something sport sometimes forgets.

The economic value of an event does not stop at the stadium gate.

The visitor buys an airline ticket.

They stay in a hotel.

They eat in restaurants.

They hire cars.

They use taxis.

They buy drinks.

They visit attractions.

They bring family.

They sometimes return.

The commercial question therefore changes.

Instead of asking whether a cricket tournament can survive solely from ticketing and broadcast rights, governments and cricket bodies can ask what the entire visitor economy generated by that event is worth.

That creates a very different business case.

And it is one the Caribbean already understands.

Then look in the other direction.

South America.

The scale deserves more attention than cricket gives it.

South America has approximately 438 million people, almost 100 million more than the population of the United States, and an economy of roughly US$4.25 trillion.

Brazil alone has around 212 million people and a US$2.19 trillion economy.

Cricket does not need Brazil to become India for those numbers to matter.

It doesn't need 200 million Brazilians suddenly buying bats.

It needs a fraction.

A fraction becoming participants.

A fraction becoming viewers.

A fraction attending events.

A fraction attracting sponsorship.

A fraction creating domestic cricket businesses.

That is what expansion looks like.

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Argentina played international cricket against Uruguay in 1868, nine years before the first recognised Test match. Argentina and Brazil were playing each other by 1888.

Cricket in Brazil dates to the mid-1800s, and the country today has men's, women's and junior programmes within the ICC system.

South America's cricket history is deeper than most of the modern game remembers.

The sport did not fail to arrive there.

It arrived and was allowed to fade.

That distinction is important.

Because rebuilding something that has history, institutions and existing participants is different from introducing something completely foreign.

And sitting on the northern edge of that continent is Guyana.

A cricket country.

A West Indies cricket country.

A country investing in cricket infrastructure and actively volunteering itself as a bridge into the wider Americas.

President Ali's proposition becomes much more interesting when you stop looking at it as an argument about the Global Super League.

The GSL is one product.

The bigger idea is Guyana as infrastructure.

What if Guyana becomes the high-performance doorway between West Indies cricket and South America?

What if Brazilian or Argentine coaches spend time inside Caribbean systems?

What if youth teams travel north?

What if Caribbean coaches go south?

What if South American players enter regional academies?

What if West Indian grounds host South American competitions?

What if Guyana becomes the first stop on the pathway from emerging South American cricket to elite international cricket?

The first question shouldn't be:

Where can we put a professional league?

The first question should be:

Where can we create more cricketers?

And this is where West Indies cricket has intellectual property the world consistently undervalues.

We understand how to produce international cricketers from tiny populations.

Barbados has done it.

Guyana has done it.

Trinidad and Tobago has done it.

Jamaica has done it.

The Leeward and Windward Islands have done it.

For all the problems in our system, the Caribbean has repeatedly produced players capable of competing with countries many times our size.

That knowledge should have value.

And we should export it.

This brings me to what I believe is the most important part of President Ali's argument.

President Ali describes a cricket economy increasingly focused on protecting established markets rather than expanding the sport.

From a business perspective, I would describe the consequence slightly differently.

Concentration risk.

World cricket has built an economic model in which an extraordinary amount of value sits within a small number of markets.

Those markets deserve to be protected.

India's growth has transformed the economics of cricket.

The IPL is one of the sport's greatest commercial successes.

England and Australia remain critically important.

The argument should never be about making successful markets weaker.

The question is why cricket is not equally obsessed with creating more successful ones.

Because protecting today's revenue and building tomorrow's revenue are not the same thing.

If your investment portfolio becomes increasingly dependent upon a handful of assets, their continued growth can make you feel incredibly secure.

Until one stops growing.

Then you discover that success had hidden the concentration.

Cricket is no different.

If too much of the global ecosystem eventually depends on one league, one country, one media market or a small collection of broadcasters, a shock in one place becomes a shock everywhere.

Media markets change.

Consumer habits change.

Broadcasters change.

Technology changes.

Economies change.

Nothing remains dominant forever.

West Indies cricket should understand that better than anyone.

We once had the most powerful team in the sport.

Then we didn't.

The solution isn't to redistribute success until every market looks the same.

The solution is diversification.

A stronger US cricket economy.

A stronger Canada.

A rejuvenated Caribbean.

A developing South America.

More sustainable cricket markets across Africa and Europe.

More commercial engines carrying the weight of the game.

The best insurance policy for world cricket isn't protecting the existing pie forever.

It is creating more pies.

This is where the historical debt and the future opportunity meet.

President Ali's argument is not simply that West Indies cricket helped build the sport and is now struggling.

The more powerful proposition is that the region still has something useful to offer.

President Ali has explicitly said Guyana isn't asking for financial support. He is asking for participation, technical support and integration into cricket's wider system. He also argues that Cricket West Indies should be leveraged to help expand cricket into both North and South America.

I think that is the conversation we should be having.

Don't prop West Indies cricket up out of sympathy.

Back it because it can be strategically useful.

Back Canada, Cayman, Bermuda, Bahamas, USA Cricket, Argentina, Peru, Brazil. Back the emerging cricket nations throughout the Americas.

But don't treat these as isolated islands on cricket's map.

Connect them and put West Indies cricket at the heart of that network.

We have the geography, history, players, coaches, grounds, tourism expertise.

We have governments that understand the wider economic benefits of sport.

We have a diaspora spread throughout North America.

And in Guyana, we have a West Indies cricket nation physically sitting in South America.

There is already a foundation.

What is missing is scale, coordination and sustained backing.

There is one final condition.

We cannot repeat the old model.

The great West Indies teams travelled the world creating attention and entertainment, while the structure of cricket at the time meant the region could never fully capture the economic value that followed them.

If West Indies cricket is going to help build the next generation of cricket markets, the region cannot simply provide the players, coaches, venues and culture while somebody else owns the economics.

If we help create the pathway, we should participate in its value.

If Caribbean expertise helps develop players, there should be economic value attached to that expertise.

If Caribbean tournaments help develop audiences, there should be commercial benefit to our ecosystem.

If tourism and cricket are combined successfully, cricket bodies should share in the upside alongside governments and private businesses.

If Guyana helps open South America, that relationship should create long-term value for Guyanese and West Indies cricket.

That is what giving West Indies its due can look like.

Not compensation but participation.

Not charity but opportunity.

Not a nostalgic reward for what we once were.

A commercial role in what cricket could become next.

The great West Indies teams helped make international cricket a global spectacle at a time when our small economies did not possess the machinery to capture the full value they created.

Cricket cannot rewrite that history.

It doesn't need to.

Give us the chance to write the next part.

I have played cricket in Cayman, Canada and Bermuda.

I captained West Indies for the first time in Florida.

I have seen enough to know that cricket in the Americas is not some imaginary future market.

The roots are already there.

The question is whether world cricket is prepared to water them.

Let Guyana help open South America.

Let the Caribbean help connect cricket to North America.

Let established and emerging cricket nations throughout the Americas become part of one development strategy rather than individual experiments.

And let West Indies cricket sit at the forefront.

Forty years ago, West Indies helped cricket become a global spectacle.

This time, let us help build the global market, and let us have a stake in what we build.

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