Tony Becca - FROM THE BOUNDARY A FEW WEEKS ago following a press conference at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel at which the latest developments in the West Indies preparation to host World 2007 were outlined and during which the chairman of the organising committee, Rawle Brancker, and managing director Chris Dehring promised to put on the best World Cup ever, I asked them a question.
The question was this: what is the greatest fear as far as realising your dream is concerned? The answer was bad publicity.
Well, the bad publicity has started, and it has nothing to do with, as The Age newspaper out of Melbourne, Australia, has reported, that Australia may be asked to be on standby should in case the West Indies cannot host the tournament. Remembering that that is par for the course in big international events, that would be nothing new nor would it be an indication that there are concerns regarding the West Indies' ability to host the tournament.
The bad publicity is that according to the report, members of the International Cricket Council are concerned about the West Indies' ability to host the tournament and that the fear is justified because of their financial worries and the general instability in the area.
According to Dehring, that is nothing to worry about. "It is a very speculative article by one journalist expressing a view. Certainly nobody at the ICC has ever expressed a concern about the West Indies Cricket Board's ability to host the World Cup."
SURPRISING
Remembering the fear of Brancker and Dehring, unless he is trying to play it down, that is surprising coming from Dehring and for some simple reasons.
Although I do not know the person who wrote the article, no responsible journalist would write something like that unless he heard it from good sources, although the person preferred to is anonymous, he did quote someone who should know a Board member from New South Wales, and the fact that no one has ever said so to Dehring does not mean that people have not expressed their concern that people from the powerful Test-playing countries have not been attempting to push the West Indies aside.
In fact, that would be nothing new not when it is remembered that despite the IRA problem and the bombs exploding in London, there was not a word out of teams like Australia or New Zealand when the World Cup of 1975 and 1979 were played in England, although the West Indies, who have regretted it, foolishly followed them, not when it is remembered that Australia refused to play in Sri Lanka in 1996, and not when it is remembered that England refused to play in Zimbabwe and New Zealand in Kenya during the tournament earlier this year.
But for England who did not go to Zimbabwe because of politics because of what was happening there, but who hosted Zimbabwe a few months later although nothing had changed, on both of those occasions, the excuse by Australia, the few West Indies Board members who acted on their own and without the support of their colleagues, and New Zealand was a concern for the safety of their players.
So far, no one has said, "let's not go to the West Indies", but it would not be surprising if that were on the cards. Maybe by mentioning "the general instability in the area", the groundwork is now being laid for that, maybe if the situation in a small, poor country like Jamaica does not change by 2006, big, rich countries like England, Australia and New Zealand may tell the ICC not to schedule matches in Jamaica or else.
That would not be surprising; that, it appears, is how it has been, the big countries, the ones that are financially better off and who apparently believe that they are better than others, seem to enjoy flexing their muscles, and the West Indies had better prepare themselves for a possible assault.
If the West Indies really intend to host the World Cup, they would be well advised to start courting friends like India, South Africa, Bangladesh and Kenya, and remembering what they did in 1996, that they also refused to play a Test series in Pakistan in 1998, they had better start winning back old friends Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
