The ICC Men’s T20 Crick­et World Cup 2024 be­ing viewed in di­verse lo­ca­tions like Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Afghanistan, Aus­tralia, Mum­bai and Jo­han­nes­burg in places such as bars, restau­rants, of­fices, malls and city cen­tres has sev­er­al pos­i­tive ef­fects that hope­ful­ly at some point will bring both tan­gi­ble and in­tan­gi­ble ben­e­fits to the Caribbean.

The so­cial and cul­tur­al im­pact brought about by events like the Crick­et World Cup can bring peo­ple from dif­fer­ent cul­tures and back­grounds to­geth­er, pro­vid­ing a com­mon ground for peo­ple to share their en­thu­si­asm and pas­sion, re­gard­less of na­tion­al­i­ty.

Watch­ing in­ter­na­tion­al events ex­pos­es view­ers to dif­fer­ent cul­tures and tra­di­tions. For in­stance, fans in Aus­tralia or Afghanistan would have learnt more about Caribbean cul­ture through the event’s cov­er­age. It pro­motes cul­tur­al un­der­stand­ing and ap­pre­ci­a­tion among di­verse au­di­ences. Foot­ball has led the way in this form of ex­po­sure over the past few decades but the Crick­et World Cup has kept the pro­mo­tion ball rolling.

I re­call in 2012 when W Con­nec­tion held Mex­i­can pow­er­house Chivas to a 1-1 draw at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, in CON­CA­CAF Cham­pi­ons League. Scores of Mex­i­cans were glued to tele­vi­sion screens in Guadala­jara, Mex­i­co City and across sev­er­al oth­er des­ti­na­tions oc­cu­pied by Mex­i­cans. Many of them would have dis­cov­ered Cou­va and Point Lisas for the first time due to the match and the host of re­ports cir­cu­lat­ed by Mex­i­can jour­nal­ists who trav­elled to Cou­va for the match. The 2001 FI­FA Un­der-17 Men’s World Cup in T&T at­tract­ed tele­vi­sion view­er­ship in over 60 coun­tries across the globe.

DP World, a lead­ing glob­al lo­gis­tics and sup­ply chain provider, part­nered with the ICC and Su­per­Sport to bring an of­fi­cial ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Fan Park to the DP World Wan­der­ers Sta­di­um in Jo­han­nes­burg this month. For the first time, there was a Fan Park set up at the DP World Wan­der­ers Sta­di­um for peo­ple to ex­pe­ri­ence two of the most high­ly-an­tic­i­pat­ed fix­tures in the Group Stage of the tour­na­ment. It was maybe the first time in his­to­ry huge crowds would have as­sem­bled in one lo­ca­tion to view not just a crick­et match in the Caribbean but to catch a glimpse of what the re­gion has to of­fer. I as­sure you, this would not hap­pen if not for sport. Per­haps po­lit­i­cal un­rest or nat­ur­al dis­as­ter de­struc­tion may make news up­dates on South African tele­vi­sion which we cer­tain­ly hope nev­er oc­curs in our life­time.

When T&T played Cana­da in the Co­pa Amer­i­ca qual­i­fi­er in March, scores of Cana­di­ans across the globe tuned in from dif­fer­ent spots. The same can be said for T&T’s win over the US in No­vem­ber. One for­mer T&T play­er told me he watched the game at a restau­rant in­side the George Bush In­ter­con­ti­nen­tal Air­port in Hous­ton.

High­light­ing the host coun­try’s at­trac­tions and cul­ture dur­ing the broad­cast can stim­u­late in­ter­est in tourism, as view­ers are in­spired to vis­it. It show­cas­es the Caribbean as a vi­brant and ex­cit­ing trav­el des­ti­na­tion.

I re­ceived a What­sApp mes­sage from a friend in Do­ha, Qatar last week, some­one I met dur­ing the World Cup in 2022 and he was buzzing as he spoke about see­ing parts of the Caribbean while view­ing the Afghanistan win over Bangladesh with oth­er lo­cals on a flat screen in his booth at the Souq Waqif. I told him to en­sure there is a sim­i­lar view­ing par­ty for yes­ter­day’s se­mi-fi­nal at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my.

Fans watch­ing a Crick­et World Cup game in Sin­ga­pore or Do­ha which was to be played in Tarou­ba, T&T, sig­ni­fies the ex­ten­sive reach and uni­ver­sal ap­peal of sports. Some of the po­ten­tial im­pacts of such a sce­nario in­clude Glob­al Reach, Cul­tur­al Ex­change and Cul­tur­al Con­nec­tion. This sit­u­a­tion il­lus­trates how sports can bridge ge­o­graph­i­cal and cul­tur­al di­vides. A fan in Nepal en­gag­ing with a game in T&T re­flects the pow­er of crick­et to con­nect di­verse cul­tures and com­mu­ni­ties. Through the broad­cast, view­ers in Syd­ney or Malaysia get a glimpse of the Caribbean’s cul­ture, tra­di­tions, peo­ple and at­mos­phere.

And yes, a young­ster in Mum­bai or Man­ches­ter can in­deed be in­flu­enced to want to play pro­fes­sion­al crick­et in the Caribbean when they see a live T20 game be­ing played here on tele­vi­sion. Here’s how: In­spi­ra­tion and As­pi­ra­tion; Role Mod­els and He­roes; Watch­ing top play­ers from the Caribbean and oth­er parts of the world per­form bril­liant­ly on the glob­al stage can in­spire young­sters. See­ing their skills, pas­sion, and style of play can mo­ti­vate as­pir­ing crick­eters to em­u­late their he­roes. Play­ers like Chris Gayle, An­dre Rus­sell, Sunil Nar­ine, Dwayne Bra­vo and Kieron Pol­lard, who have made sig­nif­i­cant im­pacts in T20 crick­et, have be­come role mod­els for young­sters.

The al­lure of liv­ing and play­ing crick­et in such an at­trac­tive set­ting can be a strong mo­ti­vat­ing fac­tor for young­sters. The idea of ex­pe­ri­enc­ing a dif­fer­ent cul­ture, meet­ing new peo­ple, and ex­plor­ing new places can add to the ap­peal of play­ing crick­et in the Caribbean.

Young crick­eters might see these leagues as step­ping stones to in­ter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion and ca­reer ad­vance­ment. High-qual­i­ty broad­casts with ex­pert com­men­tary, play­er in­sights, and be­hind-the-scenes cov­er­age can make the view­ing ex­pe­ri­ence more en­gag­ing and in­spir­ing. So­cial me­dia and on­line plat­forms have al­lowed young fans to fol­low their favourite play­ers, en­gage with con­tent, and feel more con­nect­ed to the crick­et­ing world in the Caribbean.

In sum­ma­ry, a young­ster in Mum­bai or Man­ches­ter can be sig­nif­i­cant­ly in­flu­enced to as­pire to play pro­fes­sion­al crick­et in the Caribbean by the in­spi­ra­tion from watch­ing live T20 games, the cul­tur­al and pro­fes­sion­al ap­peal, the en­gag­ing broad­cast ex­pe­ri­ence, and the mo­ti­va­tion­al im­pact of see­ing their he­roes in ac­tion. And who’s to bet against my friend and his clip in Do­ha mak­ing to trip to T&T to ex­pe­ri­ence our cul­ture when they come to the West for the 2026 FI­FA World Cup in the US.

Ed­i­tor’s Note:

Shaun Fuentes is the head of TTFA Me­dia. He was a FI­FA Me­dia Of­fi­cer at the 2010 FI­FA World Cup in South Africa and 2013 FI­FA U-20 World Cup in Turkey. The views ex­pressed are sole­ly his and not a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of any or­gan­i­sa­tion. shaunfuentes@ya­hoo.com