Caribbean Premier League chief operations officer Pete Russell is looking forward to working with Indian Premier League franchise owners Venky Mysore and Shah Rukh Khan.
Mysore owns the Kings XI Punjab in the IPL and recently purchased the St Lucia Zouks in the CPL. Khan, meanwhile, is the owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders – and bought the Trinbago Knight Riders for years ago.
“I talk to Shah Rukh a reasonable amount because he has a huge amount of knowledge: what he's learned in the IPL is only going to help us, not just in terms of the audience that they bring in terms of the Indian market, but also the learnings and professionalism. It's no coincidence that they've won the number of titles that they have. All ships rise in that scenario: other owners know that the tide mark has gone up,” Russell told ESPNcricinfo.
“Similarly with Kings XI, I'm excited to be working with some great people. If you've got owners like that, it's not as if there's any threat – at the end of the day, CPL still runs and manages the league. We're very open-minded about the way we operate. We've probably got a lot more wrong than we've got right over the years, but we learn from our mistakes and the league is in a very strong position.”
CPL in Canada or the US
Russell, meanwhile, is eager to expand the tournament to other countries. The United States of America have hosted the West Indies for T20I cricket, while the Global T20 Canada is a recent addition to cricket's calendar.
“Would we set up another franchise in the Caribbean? I doubt it. Would I set one up in America or Canada? Probably, because that would make sense in terms of breaking into new markets and making the commercials a little more palatable,” he added.
“We've got the largest professional cricket league on that side of the world, and it makes sense to collaborate and to build a powerful base there. Who knows: I could quite easily see how you would have a North and South conference in the future, once the infrastructure is in place.”
