The MAX60 T10 tournament launched on Sunday, August 18 in the Cayman Islands featuring stars such as David Warner, Chris Lynn, and Thisara Perera. It’s the brainchild of Dario Barthley, cricket administrator and promoter in the West Indies, and CEO of BMP Sports, which owns MAX60.
Dario is best known throughout the cricketing world as the former Media Officer for the West Indies Men’s Cricket Team. However, he also has extensive experience in running tournaments (Antigua’s long-running Cool & Smooth T20 tournament) and franchise teams (team manager in the CPL), which he leveraged into founding MAX60.
The MAX60 packs 25 games into eight days. Inaugural teams are T10 Abu Dhabi Champions New York Strikers, Caribbean Giants, Grand Cayman Stingrays, Boca Raton Trailblazers and Miami Lions.
Dario joined us on the Business of Cricket podcast to talk about the week-long MAX60 tournament, and the professional journey, unique to West Indies cricket, that got him there.
Transcript
Zee: And we’re here today with Dario Barthley from BMP Sports. Dario, thank you so much for joining our podcast. It’s so awesome to have you.
Dario Barthley: Zee, I want to say thank you so much for having me and thanks to your listeners and your viewers, obviously for tuning in as usual. I think that we’ve been in contact for quite some time and finally got a chance to meet during the recently concluded T20 World Cup. And now I’m on the podcast, so I’m pretty excited about that.
What is the MAX60?
So I’ve got to like jump into this. I am very excited about what you’re doing, you know, with the MAX60. So why don’t I let you start? have, I could keep you here all day. I could keep you here until the end of the tournament, asking you questions about it.
Dario Barthley: Good.
Zee: and how you put it together, but you wouldn’t like that. So let’s start with you just teeing it up. Like, what is the MAX60? What was your vision? How did it get started and how did it come to be right now?
Dario Barthley: Well Zee, I’m actually known to be slightly long-winded myself, so I’m not sure that this strategy is the best, but we’ll see how it works out. I will open the mat, I guess. So, MAX60 Caribbean is a concept. It is an opportunity and it is going to be a world-class event. MAX60 Caribbean, I would say the concept just kind of came out of necessity. We think that
Zee: Sure.
Dario Barthley: There’s an opportunity for the players that we have engaged, meaning the top level player in all of the Associate nations, some of the best T20 franchise circuit players in the world. And obviously having the local aspect and creating opportunities for the Caymanian players who will now be making their step into international franchise cricket. Rubbing shoulders with the best coaches, rubbing shoulders with the best players, and creating that opportunity for themselves to take their cricket careers further, but also to actually earn a living out of something that they love and possibly utilize those earnings to progress their career.
So, MAX60 Caribbean is a concept that we plan to take around the world really and truly, but obviously starting here in the Cayman Islands, the concept is that we will obviously contract the best players available for this period and whatever period we choose to play MAX60 cricket and Create that opportunity through having some of the biggest franchise owners in the world New York strikers are here. For instance, they’ve been quite prolific Amongst the franchise circuit for the past year or so when in the Abu Dhabi t10 I think in their their first edition they’re here as well and They have obviously invested in the product to ensure that in collaboration with BMP Sports, in collaboration with Cayman Cricket, and with the great assistance that we’ve gotten from the government here on the island that we can pull off a successful event. There’s some cool features about it, which I know we’ll get an opportunity to dive deeper into, but that is the concept of MAX60 Cricket and MAX60 Caribbean in particular.
Zee: So the format is, is it T10 or is there some twist on it?
Dario Barthley: It’s T10, it’s regular T10 rules as you would have seen in other T10 tournaments which are becoming pretty prevalent throughout the world now. But MAX60 is just the brand behind it.
Zee: Very cool brand. And there are, there’s a Cayman Islands and there’s a Bahamas on your website. So what is the difference between those two?
Dario Barthley: Yeah, so it is two different countries, firstly, but the first edition will be held in the Cayman Islands. But I think it’s an open secret that we were planning the first edition for the Bahamas and we will have an edition in the Bahamas fairly soon. However, after doing both assessments and determining what was necessary to get both venues up to scratch and obviously turn around the tournament features.
It was determined that Cayman would be our first event. However, we do plan to engage not only the Bahamas, but other countries in the region to have tournaments here. The idea is that we will invest into the facilities first and foremost, because that’s something that we can’t take up and carry with us, right? And we want to ensure that we’re leaving a legacy for the Cricket Association.
That if they’re going to be in partnership with BMP Sports, if they’re going to be in partnership with MAX60 Caribbean, that the local structure must benefit from it. And I would say that that’s one of our goals, one of our objectives, is to ensure that we’re supporting the local structure through youth programs, which we’ll implement in each country that we go to, but also through support of the senior national team. And hopefully we want to see them get better.
And you better than anyone would know about the structure of associate cricket that could lead to them performing better at that level and hopefully eventually get into things like a World Cup qualifier or even a proper World Cup tournament.
Was it timed to be right before the CPL?
Zee: Now, was it? I’m presuming it was strategically timed so that it’s right before the CPL and some of the players who want to participate in both can conveniently do that or was that a coincidence?
Dario Barthley: No, it’s strategically timed in that manner. We’re supportive of the international franchise structure and we want to ensure that players not only get an opportunity to practice their skills and exhibit their skills in front of different audiences, but get the opportunity to earn. So it was important for us that we avoided certain periods of time because of the stature of player that we want to engage. And we know that they’re probably already committed for some of these tournaments, both
You know, GT20 came just before and now we’ll go into MAX60 and then they’ll go straight into CPL. Those are three tournaments that are kind of in the same region. So it makes sense that we would, you know, take heed of their dates and probably they would do the same. And that’s the reason behind where it’s placed. Because we want to ensure that MAX60 Caribbean is not starved for talent, that we’re getting the best possible players available at that time to play for our teams.
In the first edition being here in the Caymans, we thought that that was the best way to go about it. And it has worked out pretty well in terms of the players that have come on board.
Zee: Yeah, I think this, it’s almost like the region, you know, our region, like the Northern hemisphere of the Western hemisphere, Like Caribbean and North America, we’re settling into kind of a nice set of scheduling windows, right? You’ve got the MLC and then you’ve got the, you know, the GT 20, a little bit of overlap, right? I was able to cover both. And then we’ve got your tournaments. Then we’ve got CPL.
And then there’s, know, Minor League Cricket in the fall in the U .S. after that. I think it’s all kind of falling into place pretty well.
Dario Barthley: Yeah, the calendar is actually working itself out. For a lot of years, cricket was the sport that international cricket was played the majority of the year. And then you’d play a little bit of franchise cricket in between. And I’d say that that structure is almost being flipped. Obviously, international cricket is still the pinnacle and it’s still the most important form of cricket to the players. However, the majority of the year, they’re spending their time using their talents in these franchise leagues, but also improving on their skills as well through meeting different players to go into different conditions. And I think it’s very important that both of those structures support each other.
And you’re right, within this region, that’s kind of lining up, especially for this year with the World Cup being in the region and going straight into the MLC and then GT20, MAX60 Cricket, CPL, Minder League. It almost looks like a perfect lineup.
But with the activity that’s happening in cricket business around the world, that may even change next year. So we have to be flexible. But what we have to do is ensure that every time we put a MAX60 cricket product out, that it’s the best possible product. We’re engaging the best possible players. And we’re satisfying all of our stakeholders, starting with the players, but even with the franchise owners and the home boards that we’re working with. We really want to make this a structure that works for everyone.
Did you bring franchise owners in right away?
Zee: Yeah, great. So let’s talk about the teams, right? You know, a number of your teams are, you know, named after U S cities, right? So talk to me about that sort of thinking there, right? And, and I’m assuming, but correct me if I’m wrong, like you just mentioned, you’ve already got some ownership participation in some of the teams. So even though it’s early, take me through that evolution that you can talk about, right? Because there are some tournaments that will be closely held for a few years and then bring in franchise owners. Some tournaments bring franchise owners in right away. So what did you do and who are they to the extent that you’ve done that?
Dario Barthley: Well, the world of cricket is ever-changing. So I think that in the past, there’d been issues with some of the ownership structures around franchise tournaments. And the ICC has really done a lot of good work to bring this back into their remit and bring it under control and ensure that they have an overview of what’s happening in the world of cricket, what they’re sanctioning, and what’s approved.
So we’ve been consulting the ICC throughout the process. And they have been, I mean, one of the recommendations, for instance, that we had to look for franchise owners because you want more people with interest showing that it’s a viable business structure rather than everything being run in-house. So you did mention that the teams are named after US cities, for instance. And I think that that just kind of shows business allegiance from some of the franchise owners, where they have their businesses, where they live, where they operate mostly. We didn’t limit them in terms of that. So there are some US cities, and obviously the US market is a very viable market with direct flights every day to the Cayman Islands. So those franchises would have come up with their marketing strategies, thought about the best way to go about branding their teams, and would have done so based on advice internally. So we didn’t necessarily grasp control of that. You did mention the notoriety of some of the owners and them being in other leagues. And I did mention the New York Strikers before. I think that they are the most notable franchise currently. Owners are, it’s a quite extensive list of owners that I wouldn’t necessarily go through now, but they’re people that have interest in other franchise tournaments, other franchises, and will definitely bring that feel of professionalism to the cricket as well. They want to see this product grow. It’s important to them that this product is successful, and they’re assisting us in making sure that the structure is correct.
Who are some of the big names participating in the tournament? How did you get them onboard?
Zee: So Dario, obviously one of the most impressive features of the tournament is the caliber of the players that you’ve been able to line up in your first edition. So how were you able to do that? What was the sort of the attraction and the strategy and who are some of the big names for our viewers that are lined up to participate in the tournament?
Dario Barthley: Well, the good thing about the current franchise cricket structure is that players want to play cricket and they’re accustomed to playing cricket at a particular level for most of the year. So one of the best features about our tournament is that window, which we spoke about and not having anything else directly clash with it. So players are thinking to themselves, firstly, when we approach them, ‘I’m free’. You know, there’s no cricket there. It would be good to play cricket. It’s in the Cayman Islands, which is a beautiful place. And obviously, it’s with some of the better players in the world. That’s the proposal, right? And then as it comes to fruition, then the players realize the associations within the tournament and the people that are involved, then they become more interested. They start asking questions about it. They start saying to the agents, know, this is one of my preferred tournaments. And then I think that even from a financial perspective, considering the tournament lasts nine days, we were able to make it fairly attractive as well. And that’s for the top level player. That’s for the IPL players, the players that are currently playing international cricket, like Alex Hales, like Sikander Raza, like Josh Little.
Right. This is what is needed to get these players. So I think it’s the timing, so them being available, mixed with the fact that it’s not, you know, it’s a decently paying franchise tournament. It’s not a small time tournament. And the fact that they get to play with some of the best players in the franchise circuit, but also experience some new talent that could… maybe help them in the future and form some connections for future franchise tournaments. So I think that it’s a pretty attractive tournament generally. And then that’s from a cricketing perspective. And then it being in the Cayman Islands is just a huge plus. I mean, Z does nowhere better to visit and play cricket. There’s franchise tournaments hosted everywhere and not everywhere is the Cayman Islands.
The government has been really, really helpful in terms of what they’ve provided from a framework perspective and obviously allowing us to operate within the country. And we just really want to repay that for the people of Cayman. They haven’t had this level of cricket before, but we’re confident that with the product that we’re bringing and the connections that we’ve made on the island and the people that are talking about the tournament, that they will be just as excited to come out and witness that first ball and every ball after that as we are.
Who are the main sponsors you’ve lined up?
Zee: Do you want to talk about some of the sort of the main sponsors you’ve lined up? Cause I would imagine that’s a big part of this.
Dario Barthley: Yeah, well, I want to speak about the local sponsors because the support that we’ve been able to get on the ground and planning within this period has been tremendous. And we think that these are relationships that we’ll be able to take quite far into the future. So Jack Scott, who are the local distributors for brands like Heineken, Ray and Nephew, Appleton have come on board in a big way. Logic has come on board too as an internet service provider to assist us with connectivity services throughout the tournament. DigiCel came on board in a big way as well, especially in terms of marketing, getting text blasts out to everyone that’s on the island and interested in the product. And then there are quite a few sponsors coming out of the subcontinent.
Our broadcast deals are also something that we’re very proud of Flow Sports in the Caribbean and Willow within the North America region, which you that’s where you will probably be catching our games. And those are things that we’re very proud of for a first season tournament.
And it’s because of making the right associations. It’s because we spoke to the right people and it’s because everyone that’s involved in the process was willing to put in work. All of the areas required a significant amount of work to get up to scratch. And that’s the reason we’re reaping the benefits today and we’ll hopefully reap the benefits throughout next week. To talk specifically about some of the players, I want to mention Carlos Brathwaite, who would have obviously hit those four sixes at the end of the 2016 T20 World Cup against Ben Stokes to win the championship for the West Indies. We look at that as a significant moment within West Indies cricket history. And the fact that Caymanians now come out and witness someone like Carlos on their home turf, participating with some of the other best players on the circuit is really and truly a blessing.
How did you get into cricket? Tell us about the early part of your career.
Zee: So Dario, you know, you have spent, you know, the bulk of your career in the world of cricket in the West Indies, obviously. Working at Cricket West Indies, and working in the CPL as well at the Patriots. Tell me a little bit about how you got into cricket to begin with, which island you’re from, and a little bit about the early part of your career.
Dario Barthley: Well, I’m from Antigua, so I’ll take a small opportunity to make an Antigua plug here. It’s 108 square miles, 365 beaches, and about 90, 000 amazing, beautiful people just like myself. That’s always my pitch. And I’m grateful to be from Antigua. It’s a country that has quite a rich culture, but also quite a rich cricketing history as well. Notable players being from there like Sir Vivian Richards, Sir Richie Richardson, Sir Andy Roberts, Sir Kurt Liam Bruce, Winston Benjamin, Kenneth Benjamin, Ridley Jacobs. I mean, the list goes on. We now have Alzari Joseph, Hayden Walsh Jr., and Raquem Cornwall on the international circuit. So the history of cricket in Antigua is quite rich.
And the way I got my start in cricket actually was through an internship. In 2014 CPL, I was a student at Baldwin Wallace University in Cleveland, Ohio. And I applied for an internship at the CPL. made me, I’m traveling liaison officer was the actual title at the time. But very soon after arriving into the camp, I realized that I was the team manager. So that was fun. I was kind of tossed into management in the CPL.
Zee: The deep end. Yeah.
Dario Barthley: But it was also good. When I was young, I was enthusiastic, I was able to make the right connections and get advice from the right people, not only throughout the season for the actual cricketing aspects of the job, but even the social aspects of the job, which I have grown to realize throughout my career is the most important. So that was 2014. I was about 19 years old at the time, very fresh, very young. But I did enjoy that role. And that’s the role that made me say, yes, I am going to work in cricket.
The year after I approached Amir Hurani of Cool and Smooth, who had been running a T20 tournament locally in Antigua. And I basically asked him if I could run his tournament. It was a bold move. I walked into his office with my resume in my hand. And he basically said, yes, I’ll give you this opportunity as a young person studying sports management in Antigua. I was going to be the first person in the country with an actual sports management degree.
So he saw it as an opportunity for my career to grow alongside that cool and smooth T20 brand and it definitely did. From there I’ve gotten opportunities to coordinate locally for international matches along with the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association which then led to an opportunity to work at Cricket West Indies firstly as a web writer actually but was quickly able to get into the operational side of things so I was a project officer in cricket operations with Cricket West Indies for about four to five years. I was responsible for all logistics and operations surrounding the under 15, under 17 and under 19 tournaments yearly. Then moved into the role of media manager, which I’m sure we’ll talk more about with the West Indies cricket team since 2019 and transitioned out of that job after the World Cup, the recently concluded World Cup to now being CEO of BMP Sports and CEO of MAX60 Caribbean.
How does the West Indies region generate the strongest cricket teams in the history of the sport consistently?
Zee: You know, there’s something Dario, I’ve just always been so curious. A couple of things I’ve been curious about with, with the islands, right? One is, I like to hear your perspective. I like to hear everyone’s perspective on this. The amount of athletic talent that is generated per capita is just astonishing. Right?You know, just in the recently concluded Olympics, everyone said, yeah, the U S had the most gold medals and the most medals and China had this tied for gold. And everyone’s talking about that. But if you look at the most medals per capita, it’s Jamaica, right? and so again, for a group of small islands with a collective population, that’s like, you know, not even a small city in India, right? How, in your mind, does that region generate the like one of the strongest cricket teams in the history of the sport consistently.
Dario Barthley: Zee, to be honest with you, I can’t tell you why, right? I can’t tell you why the Caribbean is so rich in athletic ability, so rich in the human resource in general and the ability of people to get things done. But I can tell you that it is a fact. I can tell you that Caribbean people, some of the most resilient, some of the most hardworking, and I think that that would obviously, that mentality would obviously play into the way that they go about sports as well. And what’s obvious to me is that that talent needs to be harnessed. I know that we have, obviously limited resources as do every, every nation, every country, every region. But we have to find creative ways to ensure that we’re supporting our athletes in cricket. Yes, that’s what we’re primarily here to talk about, but.
As you mentioned in the Olympics, Julien Alfred, when she won the 100 meters, she made me, I shed a tear when Julie and Alfred won the 100 meters. She’s from St. Lucia. I’m not from St. Lucia, but I’m from Antigua. It feels close enough to home where I could see that being an Antigua, right? And I think that that’s a big part.
Zee: Daren Sammy was a very, very happy man that day,
Dario Barthley: He’s probably still a very happy man. I haven’t spoken to him about it as yet, but he’s a proud St. Lucian and I can only imagine him, his family and all of his friends beaming with pride, seeing the St. Lucia flag being flown at that level and winning a gold medal with it being their first medal at the Olympics as well. But obviously, I want to see that for my country. I want to see that for St. Kitts. I want to see that for the Cayman Islands and for the Bahamas, right?
Because we’re all one Caribbean region. And I think that if we’re able to put more things in place and more structures in place too, capture that netting of talent that will be better off as a region. I think that sports can really and truly lead the economies in the majority of Caribbean countries if we get proper investment, both internally from the government, but also from the private sector and externally as well. And it’s just about how we go about doing that. Every day that I wake up, I think about playing my small part in advancing the Caribbean region, advancing Antigua in particular. And I think that if as a people, we start thinking about the next generation, we start thinking about what we can do for our little brothers, for our children, for our nieces and nephews, rather than what we can get out of this life and out of this world for ourselves. I think that that’s when advancement will start to become more rapid. We’ll create more opportunities for Caribbean people to shine on the big stage, whether it’s in sports, whether it’s in academics, or whatever field it’s in.
For people pursuing the business side of cricket in the region, are there more opportunities to take on leadership roles early in your career as you have?
Zee: Amen to that. You know, before we leave this topic though, the one question I want to ask, which I think is relevant to your career, is small set of islands, small population, tremendous athletic talent, tremendous cricket talent, one of the 12 test teams, right? Does that create a set of career opportunities for someone like yourself that just aren’t there in other parts of the world, right? A 19 year old kid in Mumbai can’t walk into, you know, like the IPL and say, want to be a tournament director or not even IPL, even like, you know, the Maharashtra state and they’re like, yeah, I’ll run your tournament, right? They’d be like, get lost kid, right? Get in line with the 30 million others who want to do the same thing. So with such a small population for people who pursue the business side of cricket and the industry of cricket, are there just a wealth of opportunities to shine and to take leadership roles early in your career as you have?
Dario Barthley: Yeah, and that’s kind of one of my aims in terms of all the people that I come across and I network with that are younger than me and from the Caribbean in particular. There’s so, cricket is all encompassing. Sports is all encompassing, there’s the opportunity to do operations, there’s opportunity to do media and cricket. If you’re a finance person, we need you in cricket as well. If you’re a coach, obviously there’s opportunities for you. So there’s so many different sectors that are touched, that are included in the sporting sector that I just want people to realize that you don’t necessarily have to play. I had a dream of playing professional sports as well. I actually went to university to play football, the real football scholarship. Yeah, Ohio had a lot of talented soccer players when I was attending school there for sure. We were in a very competitive region of football.
Zee: Yeah, Yeah. Ohio’s a real hotbed of that too, right? So no surprise.
Dario Barthley: And that’s why I went to university. If there wasn’t the appeal of playing in college, I probably wouldn’t have gone to university, wouldn’t have gotten my sport management degree, and I wouldn’t have realized that this is something that I wanted to do. So sports is a viable way to achieve many other things. And that’s why I always encourage people to keep their children in sport. I always encourage my little brothers to play as many sports because sports creates opportunities, yes, to play the sport at a higher level, but also to spark your interest in other aspects of the sport. How does the referee turn up and prepare? How does the groundsman, the curators turn up and prepare?
These things are things that you only get a taste of when you actually go around the sport. You don’t necessarily see it on TV because it’s not the glitz and glamor positions of the athletes or the people that are always primarily focused upon. But there’s so many avenues to be involved in sport. And if you’re interested in sport, take it as far as you can, both on the field but off the field as well.
Who were some of your mentors, and other people you admire in the industry?
Zee: Amazing. So just to, you know, to wrap up a little Dario, taking it back to your career, was great to hear earlier you talking about trying to mentor young people or to give them some guidance of how to get into the industry. You know, you yourself must’ve had sort of mentors in the industry or people you’ve worked with that you really admire in the industry. So could you sort of talk about, you know, a couple, a few of them? For each one, tell us what’s great about them and why you admire them.
Dario Barthley: And I’ll put it in no particular order, but I will go through one by one some of the people that have been extremely impactful in my career and who I look up to. And it’ll be a range of people from administrators, coaches, managers, players. But I want to start with…
I think I have to mention Amir Hurani, who is the owner of Cool and Smooth and he started the Cool and Smooth T20. That tournament has really been pivotal for not only myself, but I think quite a few players throughout the Caribbean region, with it being what I consider the second best T20 tournament in the region after the CPL. And we’ve had a host of players that have come through that tournament and been able to practice their T20 skills. You talk about a player like Alzari Joseph, who is from Antigua, who had played less than three CPL matches before going to the IPL and taking a 6 -4 and creating history. He was playing in the cool and smooth T20 before. You talk about Rakeem Cornwall.
Hayden Walsh Jr., Casey Carty, Matthew Ford. These are all players that have honed their skills in the cool and smooth T20, made their CPL teams. Some have gone on to play IPL, but definitely all of them play significant franchise cricket throughout the world. So I think that Amir Hurani was pivotal in my career. He gave me that chance to get into cricket full time and that has really worked out for me and in turn worked out for quite a few people that have come in contact with the product.
The second person that I’d like to highlight is, sorry, the next person I’d like to highlight is West Indies current manager, Rawl Lewis, the team manager of the West Indies. He was pivotal when I got to cricket West Indies in showing me the ropes, for lack of a better term. He taught me how to manage logistics for the youth tournaments, which I did for quite some time. And with him being basically my only mentor and just kind of talking me through some of the processes used to be successful in that operation. And then when I became media officer with the West Indies Senior Men’s Team and he was manager, it just created an opportunity for us to further that dynamic. We work really well together. We get a lot of things done in a short space of time. And being on the road all those years with him has really taught me a lot. It’s made me who I am in terms of cricket operations. And I’m extremely, extremely grateful for that. Rawl Lewis is someone that will be a friend for life, just like many other people that I’ve met throughout cricket.
The next person I’d like to highlight is Carlos Brathwaite. Carlos Brathwaite was a player on the Antigua and Barbuda Hawksbills in 2014 when I had my first role in cricket as manager. And when I realized as manager, I realized that I needed some expert advice and Carlos was kind of there to offer that. He was playing a lot of cricket at the time, had been with quite a few managers, had good ideas about cricket operations, and he’s just an intelligent guy in general.
So Marlon Samwell’s, Carlos Brathwaite and David Hussey, would say at the time, kind of took me under their wing to make sure that I was across all of the things that a manager needed to do and I didn’t embarrass myself basically. So I was very grateful for that throughout the 2014 CPL.
And Carlos is someone that I’ve just always kept a strong bond with throughout my career in cricket. We speak every few days really and truly. Happy to see that he is involved in the tournament as well. Excited to see him and hopes that he continues to grow from strength to strength, not only in his franchise cricket exploits, which he is specializing in now, but also his commentary. I think that he’s a great commentator.
Dario Barthley: And then the next person I want to speak about that’s been quite impactful in my cricket journey is Linford Inverary. A lot of people may not be familiar with Linford Inverary. He works in the background at Cricket West Indies, but he’s been there for quite some time. He was there when I arrived at the organization and him being a fellow grammarian, as we would say in Antigua. We went to the same high school.
He was very excited to have me there and kind of use the opportunity to teach me some of the things that he had learned throughout the time to ensure that I didn’t have to learn them in the manner that he did. So he’s the business planning executive at Cricket West Indies actually, but just a very sound mind and intelligent person has always given me great advice, but also knows when to loosen up and have a little bit of fun as well. So I have been grateful to nurture that friendship as well throughout my time in cricket and it’s been very impactful on me.
There’s a few more players that I should probably mention, but I don’t know. I just want to say thanks as well to the Antigua Barbuda Cricket Association. After getting my start in cricket through the CPL, it piqued my interest and I wanted to work in cricket doing the cool and smooth T20, obviously a private venture, and then getting the opportunity to coordinate matches on behalf of the Antigua -Barbuda Cricket Association for cricket West Indies. I think that that was really… If I had one, that would be my big break. So Kumar Rodney and his executive there at the Antigua Barbuda Cricket Association, but also all of the other stakeholders that we used to deal with that made it so easy for me to get into the operational aspects of cricket, obviously showed me respect and allowed me to do my job in the best of my abilities. So I think that that was kind of crucial for my development and.
It’s not a person per se, but definitely the Antigua Barbuda, the Cricket Association is an entity that I would like to give thanks to for my career.
Outside of that, I probably forgot a few people, but I’m sure that they won’t be upset and there’ll be other opportunities for me to point out other pivotal points in my career. There have been quite a few women that have impacted me in a very positive way. Brenda Lee Brown.
Carole Beckford, these are people that gave me opportunities in cricket as well. And I’m sure that I’ll get ample chances to kind of expand on the way that they have assisted. But in terms of the path that I’ve taken and the things that I do in cricket, I think that I’ve kind of captured the key aspects.
Zee: Amazing. Dario, it’s been phenomenal having you on today. Thank you so much for your time and for sharing everything that’s going on. And I am super excited for you and for the Caymans and for the whole region about your upcoming tournament. And I wish you all the success and we’ll definitely have you on again in the future as this thing continues to grow.
Dario Barthley: Zee, I want to say thank you for having me. Thanks to your listeners and your viewers. And I hope to be on many more times in the future. There’ll be a lot more coming from MAX60 Cricket and MAX60 Caribbean in general. And maybe we’ll even get you out to a few events in the future. So I’m looking forward to that.
Zee: that just like it is with the players, it’s a very easy sell with me. So see you soon. Thanks, Dario.
Dario Barthley: Thank you.
Name of Author: Zee Zaidi
