The International Cricket Council (ICC) incurred losses of approximately USD 20 million (Rs 167 crore) from hosting the T20 World Cup 2024 games in the USA, report agencies.
The report claimed that it will be one of the major topics of discussion during the ICC Annual Conference starting today (Friday) in Colombo. While the topic is not part of the nine-point agenda of the Annual General Meeting (AGM), the report said that it will be discussed as a "post-event report".
A major part of the tournament was hosted in USA including the much-anticipated match between India and Pakistan that took place in New York.
No sooner had India beaten USA on June 12 in the 2024 T20 World Cup at the Nassau County International stadium in New York than cricket's first fully modular stadium was being brought down, packed and folded up. Cranes were at the venue before both teams had left, to remove the four drop-in pitches, with workers ready to dismantle the stands, to be returned to Las Vegas Formula One, from where most of the infrastructure had been borrowed by ICC.
The New York project was among the most ambitious the ICC has undertaken with the venue built from scratch in 106 days. However, questions have hovered over the USA leg, where 16 of the 55 World Cup matches were hosted, almost from the moment the tournament began. Now the ICC Board, which meets this weekend in Colombo, will zoom in on several of those questions, in particular the claims that costs of the US leg significantly overshot the original budget, why that might have been the case, and who should be held responsible for it.
According to one board director, the ICC Board had initially approved a budget in the range of US $40-50 million for the USA leg of the tournament. Though ESPNcricinfo has not been able to independently verify that amount, the director said in that initial estimate, $15 million was meant for operational expenses and roughly $30 million for the construction of the temporary stadium outside New York City.
However, on the eve of the World Cup, T20 World Cup USA Inc, the US-based entity created by the ICC's commercial arm IBC (ICC Business Corporation) to run the US leg, sent in a request for an additional $20 million. This "outraged and alarmed" a number of board directors, according to a second director, not least the fact that the request was made at the last minute. According to one official who was involved in the organising and running of the tournament, however, the $20 million T20 World Cup USA Inc sought was not additional budget, but to support cash flow: "T20 Inc had to pay people and needed a cash injection as a loan."
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