West Indies Cricket Board chief executive, Dr Donald Peters. - File

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC

The West Indies Cricket Board will foot the bill for the regional limited overs championships which gets going next week in Guyana, after failing to secure sponsorship for the tournament.

This was confirmed by Donald Peters, the WICB's chief executive, speaking from his office in Antigua. He said the WICB could not find a suitable sponsor for the 50-over tournament and, as such, the board would stand the costs for the November 13-23 event.

Searching for sponsors

"We have held talks with some prospective sponsors and were not able to tie down one for this series. However, we will continue to have discussions with the sponsors and I am sure that we would have one for the tournament next year," Peters explained.

"The WICB will carry the tournament alone and it will cost around US$400,000. Normally, when we had sponsors it used to cost the board around US$500,000 because we did not really receive much from them.

"What we have done to take the cost down is to keep the tournament at one site. This has cut the cost considerably for us."

The winners of the tournament will pocket US$28,000.

Rescheduled

The tournament was expected to be played in Fort Lauderdale, United States, earlier this year, after an American entity had expressed interest in sponsoring the event.

However, the WICB was forced to reschedule the tournament after negotiations broke down.

This year, the tournament will be boosted to nine teams with the inclusion of Canada and the United States.