Cricket in the West Indies was at a time of decline, indicated by the criticism received when they hosted the 2007 Cricket World Cup and the failure of the Stanford 20/20.
On 13 December 2012, the WICB announced that they had finalized an agreement with Ajmal Khan [REF] founder of Verus International, a Barbados-based merchant bank, for the funding of the new franchise-based Twenty20 league which will be launched in 2013.