World Cup Cricket, 2007 What A Challenge!

by Soldier Campbell

Caribbean – International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup Cricket 2007! From a global audience perspective, the 47-day event, from late March to end of April, is the third largest sporting event in the world. The Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup Soccer are the two largest.

It is claimed that 2.2 billion people will watch the cricket matches on worldwide television and almost one million cricket fans will invade the Caribbean to see the matches live.

In the eyes of the Caribbean, it is the most significant sporting event ever in the region and benefits from hosting ICC World Cup Cricket 2007 will be reaped for decades.

Nine Caribbean countries, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, Guyana, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Kitts & Nevis and Antigua & Barbuda are hosting the 16 international teams.

The 16 international teams are The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Scotland, Bermuda, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Canada, England, Kenya, Ireland, Zimbabwe and the West Indies.

Preparation for ICC World Cup Cricket 2007 has been underway for several years. Planning, organizing and efficiency will determine if the 2007 games will be remembered as a nightmare or a fantastic achievement for the region.

The task is challenging. It is difficult to organize an international event in a single country, so you can imagine how hard it is to have the games in nine countries with nine different governments, laws, immigration and custom policies.

Let’s take a look at the organizers and those who are financing the games. About five or six international businesses, such as Pepsi and Indian Oil, are sponsoring the event. They have paid half a billion dollars to the ICC for the privilege and the ICC has contracted the West Indies Cricket Board to host and organize the games.

The West Indies Cricket Board has created a corporation consisting of bureaucrats and technocrats, a board of directors and a managing director to organize the games. This corporation is called the ICC CWC WI 2007, Inc. Kenneth Gordon, a media tycoon and former government minister in Trinidad and Tobago, is the Chairman, and a technocrat, Chris Dehring of Jamaica, the Managing Director and CEO.

ICC CWC WI 2007 has created a Local Organizing Committee (LOC) in each Caribbean country (Host Venue) hosting teams to organize, promote and market its matches. The West Indies has to abide by the guidelines created by the ICC and the sponsors. Day-to-day operation is in the hands of the West Indies and its LOCs.

The governments of the nine Caribbean states hosting the matches are working with each other to ensure smooth operation and success. Each government realizes that ICC World Cup Cricket 2007 is more than cricket for the region. Governments realize that hosting the games will enhance the economy, promote the islands as tourist destinations, create employment for many years and bring countless more benefits.

It is each government’s task to provide stadiums (stadia) for the matches and the stadiums have to meet the ICC criteria. Construction and renovation of the twelve stadiums are almost completed. Several countries, including China and India, financed them.

The parliament in each host country has enacted “sunset” legislation to ensure a common immigration policy during the 47 days of the matches. The bottom line is if you plan to visit two or more countries for the matches, you don’t have to endure formal immigration and custom clearance in each country.

So far everything sounds and looks nice and dandy but there are many hurdles and people are beginning to question if the optimism about the World Cup in the region is indeed genuine. There are dark clouds on the horizon.

Ticket sales are not going as quickly as anticipated. True, tickets for the finals, in Barbados, have been completely sold but ticket sales for other matches in Barbados and other islands are slow. The major reason is the abundance of countries involved. Let’s say you are a cricket fan living in Australia, you may be reluctant to purchase tickets and make hotel reservations because you are not too certain where Australia will be playing if it remains in contention.

In the meantime, and judging by the tone of LOC officials, Caribbean nationals are reprimanded for not purchasing tickets early. They forget that Caribbean folks have no tradition of purchasing tickets for anything early. Many Caribbean fans residing abroad, even those who have already purchased tickets, have questions and it seems that there is a communication problem.

In October, separate LOC delegations arrived in New York and other U.S. cities to brief the public. Cricket great Rev. Wes Hall, who took the initiative for ICC to stage its World Cup 2007 in the Caribbean, led the Barbadian delegation. The meeting, by invitation only, was held at the Barbados Consulate in New York. The Jamaicans held theirs in a separate place. The ICC or a LOC held a reception in the East Village where few New York Caribbean people visit. The Trinidadians held their meeting at a nightclub in Queens. It was really a Friday night party and former Miss Universe, Penny Commissiong, the marketing director for Trinidad’s LOC, had difficulties getting the patrons to listen. The Grenadians held theirs at the 2,500-seat Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts and only about 25 persons bothered to show up. The Grenadian community was not told about the meeting.

For ostentatious technocrats in the region, who consider themselves sterling professionals, no professionalism was exhibited in promoting their visit to New York. Fans did not even know of the visit and the few who heard about it heard it through word of mouth. It seemed they gave the assignment to a Madison Avenue consulting company.

In each meeting, the delegation boasted about how Caribbean governments and LOCs were thoroughly united to ensure a successful tournament. It’s ironic that they came to New York as separate delegations, each delegation attempting to address its own nationals, each island to itself. The venues chosen, days chosen, and timing were all wrong. They did not connect with cricket fans; few fans knew of the LOCs’ visits.

After listening to officials at the Village, someone summed it up best when he privately remarked: “It seems that the management is more concerned in enhancing their personal image. The so-called cricket mascot they are displaying is a cheap copy of the face of a Sesame Street character. They cannot give clear and concise answers but prefer to utter rhetoric. They were not in New York to inform people but to lecture on how fans must conduct themselves at the matches.”

As for the airports, facelift is in progress at some, while others have not even started their projects.

It is claimed that nationals will be trained to handle the massive amount of visitors anticipated, but there is no indication that training has commenced. Disrespect and inefficiency continue to plague most airports in the region. Since white tourists are generally extended better treatment, it is interesting to see what courtesies will be given to cricket fans from countries like Africa, India and Sri Lanka, among others.

Given the tone of one of the shining stars that came to New York to market the event, it seems anyone coming from a Muslim country where cricket is the national pastime may be perceived as a terrorist. “We will not allow terrorist to use cricket to destroy our Caribbean way of life,” she said. Security is essential; but are officials depending on immigration, airline and custom personnel to determine who is a terrorist? People are beginning to ask.

In early November, an ICC official warned at a travel meeting in New York that the games will be withdrawn in host countries that do not measure up to expectation. Was he bluffing or was he for real? A Caribbean person in attendance thought the ICC official insulted Caribbean people.

Actually, it is the other way around: The Caribbean bureaucrats who are planning the cricket matches are reluctant to listen to, and accept, criticisms. They believe that fans that point out weaknesses are being negative. They are insulting fans by rejecting their constructive criticisms.

The ICC World Cup Cricket can be a blue print for groups of countries jointly planning events to follow; it can also be the opposite. Is the ICC World Cup Cricket bringing milk and honey to the region or will the event be remembered for its chaos, inefficiency and mass confusion, and for its communication, transportation and hotel nightmares?

That’s the $64,000 question!

In every issue, EVERYBODY’S will provide commentaries and features on the ICC World Cup 2007. The March issue is a Special West Indies World Cup edition.