CWI and T20 World Cup CEO: 'Growing the sport in our time zone crucial to our long-term survival'

This year's men's T20 World Cup has one goal: expansion. With 20 teams, it's the largest field at a cricket World Cup to date and with the USA as one of the host countries, it's also the most substantial step into what the ICC has identified as its biggest growth market.

From a cricketing perspective, too, there's plenty of big things going on. West Indies did not qualify for the 2023 ODI World Cup, did not make it to the Super 12s of the 2022 T20 World Cup, and have been a fading force in general. But they are aiming to use the home T20 World Cup - they are co-hosts with the USA - to put themselves front and centre of the cricketing world again.

ESPNcricinfo spoke exclusively to CWI and T20 World Cup CEO Johnny Grave about the preparations, what will make this event different from others, and what the measure of success will be.

What was the thinking behind co-hosting this tournament with the USA and what are the challenges of hosting a World Cup in multiple countries?
We strategically decided to bid for the men's T20 World Cup, rather than any of the other opportunities that there were between now and 2031, jointly with the US because we wanted to grow the sport in our time zone, which we believe is crucial to our long-term survival. As West Indies, we've got a huge diaspora in North America and with the USA being the most developed sports market in the world, the more we can reach out to it, the more we are likely to attract high-value sponsors and broadcasters. We believe we made a good decision. But it's been a challenge to keep to the spirit of our initial partnership with USA Cricket due to the lack of established international venues they currently have… as we sit now, we have exhausted every potential opportunity.

Are you happy with the venues you've ended up with, particularly those in the USA?
What we've now come up with is two fairly low-risk venues, in Florida and Dallas, and one that I would define as a very ambitious project in Nassau County in New York. At Fort Lauderdale in Florida, we've got a long and successful history of working with both the Central Broward Regional Park, the county, and everyone else when we play international cricket there. And then Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas gives us another state to take matches to. Major League Cricket (MLC) developed that venue and operated it last year and one expects it will be enhanced for a World Cup, but I think they had plans to enhance it anyway for the second edition of MLC.

When we originally agreed our joint bid, we had envisaged a one-third/two-third split of matches between us and the USA. We are not quite there but it would have been very easy for West Indies cricket to say we've spent a year looking at venues in the USA and it's becoming more and more problematic so therefore we will just play all the matches in West Indies. But that would not have been aligned to our bid or the ICC strategy to grow the game and it also wouldn't have been aligned to our long-term strategy.

Let's specifically discuss New York, which you've called an ambitious project. We know that a temporary cricket stadium will have to be constructed at Eisenhower Park, and that there is still much work to be done. But it will have to be ready for matches including the marquee clash between India and Pakistan. How confident are you that it will be up to standard for this event?
I am confident that the plan is in place. We'll have a drop-in wicket and drop-in-wicket technology was in use at the last World Cup in Australia and has been used extensively in both Australia and New Zealand. We've probably got one of the best people in the world leading on it, with Damian Hough, the lead curator at the Adelaide Oval, overseeing it and LandTek, who are an established turf firm in the United States, also working on it. We're not doing anything new - Miami is converted into a Formula One destination in a weekend, all using modular stands - but what we're doing for cricket is completely new. Therefore, in a sense, what we're doing is very ambitious and one of a kind, but I don't think any of us would be going forward with it if we didn't think we could deliver on it. For cricket fans, it is completely unique and will hopefully surpass all expectations of what any of us could imagine. I am quite optimistic that when we all go to New York and see it, we will be blown away by the scale and size of what we see in a park in New York.

What about the six Caribbean nations? Are there any specific areas of focus for them?
The number one priority for us is to get the cricket right: making sure the teams come in smoothly and safely, that logistics work and they are given the best possible facilities to train and practice so that they can execute their best skills come match day. If we can get that right, then the cricket will take care of itself because the players will be in the best frame of mind with the best preparation in order to put on the best show. It should be a real spectacle. The other challenge is to learn from the 2007 World Cup, which I think we have done.

What do you mean by that?
The biggest thing that people feel went wrong in 2007 was that it didn't embrace the local communities and local fans enough. We want to be as compliant as we have to be with all the ICC regulations and policies but also defend the position that in the West Indies there is a way of watching cricket and that way should also be respected. People should be able to come in with their cooler boxes, their flags, their horns and their drums, and enjoy and watch the cricket the way they want to. And we want to create the atmosphere that travelling fans also want - which is to watch with loud, noisy West Indian fans who are passionate and don't necessarily sit in their seats and give a quiet cheer and clap every now and then. The main thing in terms of the 2007 lesson is to make sure we are loyal to our fans and consistent in the way that we allow fans to attend, and make it affordable and make sure when they do turn up, it's an environment that they are used to and how they want to watch their cricket.

West Indies have hosted three ICC events since then: the 2010 T20 World Cup, the 2018 women's T20 World Cup, and the 2022 Under-19 World Cup. Do you feel the fan experience has improved over time?
Kind of. And we also have the CPL. It is a fantastic product, the average age of the fans is young and there are probably more females than males. We are very focused on playing those games at night, when our fans can attend. For this World Cup, there will be some morning matches during the week but we see this as an opportunity to extend free tickets to school children, so that they can experience World Cup T20 cricket too.

In terms of the last two events, we feel as though no-one remembers the role we played in 2018 when we successfully hosted the women's World T20 with big crowds. We sold out Antigua for the final, between neutral teams [Australia and England]. And with the last Under-19 World Cup - we had 16 teams come in and play for a whole month and were just coming out of Covid. It was run very smoothly and the feedback from teams was really positive.

You've spoken a lot about your own fans and how you hope to create an experience that is tailored for them, but do you expect a big international contingent?
We hope it becomes the biggest and most important World Cup ever in terms of traveling fans. We still think this is the best place in the world to watch and play cricket. Hopefully now that we are fully out of Covid, this will have the biggest number of traveling fans attending a World Cup since 2019. And hopefully because it's T20, we can surpass that. We know it can be expensive to get here but one of the advantages to hosting the tournament in June is that it's not peak [tourist] season so hopefully it does become more affordable to fans once they are here.

What would you consider a successful tournament?
If you're hosting, it's about legacy and about short-term maximisation of the opportunity financially. We are looking at this T20 World Cup as a catalyst for change. If you look at what New Zealand had in 2015, that gave them the financial catalyst for a lot of improvements on and off the field. We probably won't host another major men's ICC event for a decade. But it's also a fantastic opportunity for us to promote our purpose, that small Caribbean countries can unite and come together, take on the best in the world, and win. So, for us, off the field, it's legacy, smooth operations and pride. From a team perspective, the focus and what's at the forefront of everyone's minds is on winning. Everything we are doing is trying to ensure that we win the third title at Kensington [Oval, in Barbados] in June.