ICC faces huge loss due to USA leg of T20 World Cup, board to discuss the matter during Colombo meeting

The recently concluded ICC T20 World Cup 2024 was a historic event for several reasons. One of those reasons was the USA co-hosting the tournament.

The ICC has been trying to tap the US market for quite some time now and conducting the T20 World Cup was a big step towards it. T20 World Cup 2024 was the first major ICC tournament to feature matches played in the USA. The ICC even allocated the marquee India vs Pakistan clash to the USA to draw a big crowd.

Overall, 16 games were conducted in the USA with New York, Florida, and Dallas hosting the games. USA's shock win over Pakistan also generated a lot of curiosity for the game in the country. According to the ICC, a total of 2.7 million USA-based users visited their website and app during the competition, a staggering 370 percent rise from the 2022 T20 World Cup.

ICC suffers big loss due to USA leg of T20 World Cup:

While the tournament in the USA seemed like a success, the same cannot be said in financial terms. According to a report in PTI, the USA leg of the T20 World Cup exceeded the budget and the governing body of the game had to incur a big loss. As per the report, the ICC board will discuss the losses during the Annual Conference of the world governing body in Colombo on July 19.

As of now, the exact figure of losses is not clear since the audit is still ongoing. However, there is a feeling among prominent board members that losses for the US leg of the tournament could run into millions of dollars.

The report further stated that Tournament Director Chris Tetley has resigned although he had decided to put in his papers even before the start of the tournament.

"Many members aren't happy with Tetley's performance. He had tendered his resignation but it can't be said that USA leg of the T20 World Cup has got anything to do with it," an ICC board source told PTI.

"With at least three ICC global tournament and all associate nation getting T20I status, management work is relentless. Tetley, it is believed had decided to quit some time back."

The source also stated that the influential members of the ICC were unhappy with the governing body for choosing New York city as one of the venues for the marquee event. With New York not having a dedicated cricket stadium, a pop-up venue was installed but things did not go well as the pitch and the outfield received severe criticism.

"The event was supposed to be held in the USA and there were other cities apart from New York where matches could have been organised. Why wasn't it considered?

"No practice matches were played to test the strip, which was certainly unsuitable for top flight cricket," the source said.