00:09Since its inception in 2013, the Caribbean Premier League has been a massive success,
00:14with a growing viewership hitting the 900 million marker in 2025.
00:19Head of PR and Communications at the CPL, Peter Miller, commented on the complexity of the tournament.
00:25I think people need to realise just how difficult it is to put on a tournament like CPL.
00:29There's no other T20 tournament that's taking place in eight different nation states.
00:32You've got to move people, cricket kit, TV equipment that's coming from one shoot to another shoot, all those things.
00:40So it's a scramble, you know, it's a lot of work to try and put it in.
00:42Thankfully, those of you who are a lot cleverer than me and a lot smarter than me
00:46from the operations side of things are able to do that and put it together.
00:49So fair play to Michael Hall from CricketOps side and Petrona Pert, the unsung hero of CPL,
00:54who brings all of these things together. So yeah, everyone is pretty much in place and we're ready to go.
01:01But it will continue to be a beautiful swan gliding across the water.
01:07Miller noted there was initial resistance in the tournament's embryonic stage,
01:11but now everyone wants a piece of the CPL cake.
01:14From a regional point of view, CPL has put somewhere in the region of about 40 million US dollars in
01:20the pockets of regional cricketers across the last 14 years.
01:24That's not money that's come from Cricket West Indies.
01:26That's not money that's come from a government or anything.
01:28That's private investors' money that's been put into that.
01:31So, you know, that, I think, means that players are receptive.
01:33The Caribbean Premier League showcases the best of the Caribbean.
01:37However, TNT holds a magical piece in the tournament's puzzle.
01:41Trinidad, obviously, from our point of view, is massive.
01:44It's, you know, it remains the commercial hub of the Caribbean and the commercial hub of CPL.
01:49If you think the biggest sponsors that we've got are based in Trinidad.
01:55You know, our title sponsor is Domicel there.
01:58And obviously the passion that we've seen for CPL this year has just been unbelievable.
02:01You know, we've got guys queuing up at 4.30 in the morning to go and buy a ticket.
02:05Speaking of tickets, fans were reported to be in queue six hours before the box office opened at the Queen's
02:10Park Oval.
02:11This, Miller says, the CPL tried rigorously to prevent.
02:15So, like, we've put the vast, vast majority of our tickets up.
02:19Eighty-five percent of our tickets are available to buy online, so you don't need to queue up.
02:23The reason why we hold tickets back from the ticket office is not to make it more difficult for people
02:27to buy tickets,
02:28to make it accessible for everybody.
02:31Right?
02:32So, you could say all of the tickets are online and sell out all of those tickets online in Trinidad.
02:37But we're aware that certain people in Trinidad that aren't in a position where they can buy tickets online,
02:41whether or not they have issues with digital literacy, whether or not it's they don't have a credit card,
02:46whether or not they don't feel comfortable with it.
02:48As far as online purchases are concerned, the Caribbean, despite moving rapidly in the right direction,
02:53is a ways behind the rest of the world, right, in terms of these things.
02:56Like, you know, there's lots of events that take place in the U.S., U.K., the rest of Europe,
03:01where you can't buy a physical ticket for one of these events you have to buy online.
03:05So, that's the reason why we do it.
03:07But we also make it very hard that we're not going to sell out in one day.
03:11We don't release all of the tickets in one go.
03:12We release them in batches.
03:14The reason why we do that is so we can manage demand and make it as easy as possible.
03:18Obviously, we've opened the box office in Queen's Park Oval, and lots of people came.
03:23And the fact that lots of people came is a good news story.
03:26The fact that they were frustrated with how long they have to wait is obviously not great for us.
03:31Ultimately, what we want to have is we want every experience that anyone has with the Caribbean Premier League to
03:36be positive.
03:37Are we going to achieve that every single time?
03:39Of course.
03:39It's just not possible, right?
03:41Because we're human, we'll fail.
03:43But I think the important thing from my point of view is, and the thing I will continue to focus
03:49on and shout from the rooftops,
03:50is that CPL is loved and adored in Trinidad and across the rest of the Caribbean.
03:54As a host, Bap Loan has commanded me to transition to the rest of the Caribbean.
03:55You
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