West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) CEO Johnny Grave admitted that the scheduling for the ongoing 2024 T20 World Cup has been tailored to suit Indian prime time. Johnny Grave emphasised that, despite the matches being held in the West Indies and USA, most games start at 8 PM and 6 AM IST to cater to the significant Indian audience, which drives the vast majority of revenues for all ICC events.
The ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 has games starting at 10:30 AM in the USA, which is around 8:00 PM in India. This timing hasn’t attracted many fans to the stadiums in the USA. While the ICC aims to promote cricket in America, the morning schedule isn’t helping much.
In the Caribbean, which is also co-hosting, games are held both in the morning and evening. While evening games draw good crowds, morning games aren’t as popular because they clash with people’s morning routines.
What Johnny Grave Said
Grave explained that the scheduling was designed to cater to the Indian market, which generates a major portion of the revenue for ICC events.
In an interview with The Indian Express, he said,
“I think everyone accepts that the vast majority of revenues for all ICC events comes from one market. Therefore it is really important that we find a balance between starting matches at prime time in India and for home fans. We have half the matches early for Star Sports and then we have gone as late as possible so they will start early in the morning in India, so they should still get a decent viewership.”
“We as hosts can focus on the local fans attending the evening games and the 10:30 morning games will allow us to get school kids to watch some World Cup cricket for free.”
Matches starting at 8 PM IST are as early as 10:30 AM local time in the host nation, much earlier than usual. Team India plays all four group matches at 8 PM IST and will keep this timing if they advance to the semi-finals.
Johnny Grave on How WI’s Good Performance is Linked to a Potential Boost to Their Income
Johnny Grave acknowledged that a strong performance by the West Indies, and possibly winning a third T20 World Cup title, would greatly excite home fans and significantly boost the board’s income. The West Indies won the T20 World Cup in 2012 and 2016 but did not qualify for the main event in the 2022 edition.
When asked about the importance of the West Indies winning the 2024 T20 World Cup trophy, Grave said,
“If we can lift a record third title then it will have a huge impact, not just on Cricket West Indies but the whole Caribbean. The new ICC economic model also has a performance component that determines how much funding you receive, so if we perform well in ICC events it will be a potential boost to our income in the next cycle of the ICC rights distribution.”
“It is extremely important as it would be a huge boost to our cricket system and the entire region. The reaction of our fans and the Caribbean people on the back of the Test win at the Gabba was unbelievable and we saw how that resonated across the region.”
The West Indies have started their campaign strong with a hard-fought five-wicket win over Oman. They will face Uganda in their next match in Guyana on Saturday, June 8.