T20 World Cup 2024: ICC only cares about India? CWI CEO finally reveals reason behind Indian audience being prioritized in match timings

Cricket West Indies chief Johnny Grave opened up about why the timings of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 have been kept in accordance with the Indian Prime Time. He revealed that most of the revenue is generated from India so it was important for them to find that balance.

The ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 has seen games being played during the daytime, which starts around 8:00 PM in India. The games are being played at 10:30 AM in the USA and this has seen not many fans attend the games. With ICC promoting cricket in America, the morning shift surely isn’t helping.

On the other hand, in Carribean, who is also the co-host, is hosting games in the morning as well as the evening. While the evening games are getting good crowds, people don’t prefer morning games, which usually clash with their morning timings.

Cricket West Indies chief Johnny Grave talked about the challenges of co-hosting the tournament. He admitted that the majority of the revenue comes from the Indian market so it was a huge challenge for them to find a balance between India and home fans.

Johnny Grave stated by staging the games early in the morning, they are focussing on bringing school children for free in the stands and then local fans can attend evening games as well. Speaking to Indian Express, he explained:

"I think everyone accepts that the vast majority of revenues for all ICC events comes from one market. Therefore we must find a balance between starting matches at prime time in India and for home fans.

“We have half the matches early for Star Sports and then we have gone as late as possible so they will start early in the morning in India, so they should still get a decent viewership.

"We as hosts can focus on the local fans attending the evening games and the 10:30 morning games will allow us to get school kids to watch some World Cup cricket for free.”

Money generated by host boards is going to be shared by far more members than in the previous eight-year cycle - Johnny Grave

Johnny Grave further talked about why countries like India, England, and Australia hosting more international tournaments compared to South Africa and the West Indies.

He revealed that revenue generated by the big three goes to them only while the revenue generated by hosts like the USA/West Indies, Zimbabwe, and Namibia gets distributed among a larger number of participants compared. He added:

"What that means is that the money generated by host boards is going to be shared by far more members than in the previous eight-year cycle. The money used to be retained by the biggest three who already have a huge economic advantage from their domestic markets with the money they receive from their host broadcasters,” he concluded.