On the eve of the 2024 T20 Men’s World Cup final which was co-hosted by the US and the West Indies, cricket legend and former T20 World Cup champion Chris Gayle called for separate World Cup tournaments in the future.
“As I’ve said before, I’d love if the World Cup was going to be hosted in the Caribbean, it should be the Caribbean only. If it’s going to be hosted in the US it should be the US only.
“You know give everybody a fair chance to host the World Cup within your rights and you know they can do whatever they want rather than having the USA and the Caribbean hosting a World Cup. So in the future that’s something they can look into as well. “
Gayle noted that he did not understand the reason for the co-hosting arrangement:
“But they kept it minimal, you know maybe from a cost point of view I don’t know the reason behind it as well.”
Gayle emphasized the importance of these sorts of events to growing the US market:
“I think it’s a win-win for the US as well to host cricket. We’ve been trying to get this done – or the ICC has been trying to get this done – for ages now to showcase cricket within the US, and I think they’ve done a very good job by doing this as well.
“In the future I’m sure that the US can actually host a World Cup by themselves and make it a bit more profitable as well as it’s a very very good market, a very big market we know.”
However he reiterated that the Caribbean nations playing as the West Indies deserve and need the benefits of a fully-hosted World Cup tournament:
“And In the Caribbean as well we need to uplift our cricket as well. You know so within the Caribbean we need this sort of event as well to kind of bring back the real traditional West Indian Cricket here in the Caribbean and for the people to get back that passion and the love for the game as well. So we need that without a doubt.”
However, as this tournament was just the first in the Men’s World Cup hosting cycle through 2031, the earliest that either the US or West Indies can host another Men’s T20 or ODI World Cup would be after that.
