Hosting senior international cricket ‘massive for the island’
Guernsey hosting senior international cricket for the first time since before Covid will be ‘massive’ for local sports tourism, according to tournament director Mark Latter.
The island has welcomed nine countries from around Europe as part of a sub-regional qualifier for the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, with matches taking place at the KGV and Port Soif over the course of the next week.
Fixtures begin today and will be streamed live on the ICC website to a global audience.
Mr Latter, a former CEO of Guernsey Cricket, said that despite scares over the last few days with flights being cancelled and bags going missing, all nine of the participating nations – which include Spain, Finland and Greece – had now arrived and were getting in some last-minute preparation yesterday before the start of the tournament.
This included a presentation ceremony involving all the teams last evening at the St Pierre Park Hotel.
‘We are still missing some officials but they should arrive in time. We’ve had a bit of a nightmare with some of the flight cancellations,’ Mr Latter said.
He predicted there would be a ‘considerable focus’ on Guernsey from the cricketing world due to the ICC making live-streaming of the matches available.
‘When Guernsey’s bid was accepted by the ICC last September there’s a process by which the ICC provides a certain amount of funding to assist with the tournament, and ICC staff have been here this week to help with the set-up,’ he said.
‘As well as the streaming we’ve basically taken over the St Pierre Park Hotel, and each of the travelling squads of 16-18 members have a few additional people with them.
‘Add to that some cricket enthusiasts from England and further afield who have got in contact about coming over to watch the games, it will just be massive for the island in terms of income and sports tourism.’
Tourism Management Board deputy chairwoman Charlie Walker said the tournament presented a ‘unique opportunity’ to put the island in front of a global audience, and acknowledged that sports tourism was a ‘growth opportunity’ for the Bailiwick.
‘Attracting both teams, and their spectators, supports many of the TMB’s short and longer term aims, delivering additional year-round visitors and providing a boost to the wider visitor economy,’ he said.
‘We are committed to closer collaboration with sports organisers to increase events-led tourism, in particular shoulder-month sporting activity.’
