Tony BeccaBy Tony Becca
THE 2007 World Cup of cricket will be hosted by the West Indies; it is expected to attract thousands upon thousands of visitors to the region and when it is all over a lot of money will be left behind.
The question, however, is this: who will get the money?
As a cricket event, the money, most of it, should obviously go to cricket - to the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and its affiliates - for the development of cricket.
That, however, may not be the case. In fact, cricket, West Indies cricket, may get nothing at all.
For months now, representatives of the governments of the region and the WICB have been meeting to discuss money - to decide how the spoils should be shared and, according to members of the board, the way things are going, West Indies cricket will be left in the cold.
The governments, it seems, want the lion's share, and the reasoning, it appears, is that they are coming up with the money to renovate existing grounds or to build new stadiums, to meet other requirements as stipulated by the International Cricket Council (ICC), and because of that the profits should be theirs - especially as the WICB will be receiving about US$108 million from the ICC.
While that looks reasonable on the surface, it is far from reasonable - and for three simple reasons.
One reason is that it was on the encouragement of the governments, who also gave the ICC a guarantee, that the board made its bid for the World Cup.
The second reason is that although it is the governments which will be financing or partly financing the renovation of or the building of stadiums, it is unreasonable to expect their money back after one event; and the third reason is that the US$108 million from the ICC is simply to organise and run the tournament.
PENALTIES
According to information coming out of the board, it has estimated that the cost to organise and run the tournament will be about US$67 million, that means they could save about US$41 million, and that would be wonderful.
The problem, however, is that if anything goes wrong, there will be penalties and as South Africa, hosts of the 2003 event, are finding out, the penalties can add up to a whole lot of money much more than what can be saved out of the US$108 million.
In other words, if the WICB is not careful, instead of ending up with some money, it could end up owing a lot of money.
The question is how can the problem be solved?
One suggestion is that with so many thousands of visitors, so many thousands of tourists, expected in the region, with so much money expected to go into the coffers of the governments from the many forms of taxes, with the prime time advertisement that the region will get as a tourist destination and therefore the possibility of more tourists and more money in the years to come, the governments should settle for that and allow cricket to get the money it needs to develop the game which they all claim to love.
Which, certainly in places like Barbados and Antigua, has done a lot for their economy because of the number of tourists it attracts, and which, as they have all said time and time again, has done so much for the people of the region and for the unity of the region.
The governments, however, are not the only ones who should deal fairly with cricket during the World Cup of cricket.
Regardless of what the governments and the WICB agree on, at the end of the day, the bulk of the money coming into the region will end up with the hotels and others in the service industries and remembering that it is cricket that will be bringing the tourists into the region, they should, if they have a conscience, share the spoils with cricket.
PERCENTAGE OFFER
There are many ways they could do so. Remembering that cricket needs money, however, the best way would be to offer the cricket associations in their territory a percentage, probably five or 10 per cent, from the cost of every room occupied by those who come to watch cricket during the tournament.
The governments, the hotels, every West Indian will be important to a successful tournament, and those who spend their money, those who invest their money deserve a return on their money.
It would be a shame, however, if when the World Cup of cricket is over, cricket, West Indies cricket, has nothing to show - no money to ensure the future of the game, no money to spend on the proper and full development of the players, and remembering the disappointment of the people in recent years over the poor performance of the regional team, no money to build a strong West Indies team.
