Tony Becca, Contributing Editor

THE WORLD Cup is just about seven months away and Jamaicans, like other West Indians, are looking forward to a grand time.

In spite of all the nice talk, despite all the lovely facilities that will be in place, there is, however, a concern among cricket fans that it may not be the financial success it ought to and was expected to be.

In other words, the fear is that when the World Cup is all over, a lot of money will not be made from it and because of that, cricket, Jamaica's cricket - the national association, the clubs and parishes - may not be one cent better off.

Apart from the crime situation, one reason for the fear is that Kingston, the capital city, is marking time in getting ready to host those who come. Another is the cost of the tickets and still another reason, probably the most important of all, is that in preparing for the World Cup, Jamaica is not only extensively renovating one stadium, it is also building a new one. The Government has come up with the money for both projects and, when it is all over, the Government will have to be paid and cricket will have to foot the bill.

While some may say that is only fair, that the stadiums, at least the one at Sabina Park, will be there for cricket for years to come and that the Government should get back its money, the other side of the coin is that back in the late 1990s when the West Indies Cricket Board made its bid to host the World Cup, the governments around the region, including the Government of Jamaica, encouraged it to do so - and although there are those who believe they did so simply to get the opportunity to preen themselves before the rest of the world, they did so because of the impact they believed it would have on the region's tourist industry.

Influence on the tourism

The governments around the region believed, and still believe, that the World Cup will have a strong influence on the tourist industry; that with so many visiting during the tournament, the various economies will benefit enormously from the sale of goods and services, from hotel rooms to a bottle of Red Stripe or a drink of rum and coke and there is no question about that.

Although the people may not turn up in the numbers that are being talked about, although they have never turned up in such numbers at any World Cup, the fact is that no World Cup has ever been held in a location like the Caribbean, and that the region, including Jamaica, stands to earn millions of US dollars during the tournament.

In other words, even without thinking of the free daily exposure to millions upon millions of people around the world through live television - the kind of exposure which nothing but the Olympic Games and the World Cup of football offer, the sort of exposure that dwarfs things like Reggae Sumfest and Reggae Sunsplash, the World Cup of cricket will be a blessing for the economies of the region.

It will be a pity, therefore, if cricket gets nothing or next to nothing from it, and with the profits to be divided between the governments (approximately 55 per cent) through the LOCs (the Local Organising Committees) and the West Indies board (approximately 45 per cent), with the West Indies board keeping approximately 75 per cent of its share and sharing up approximately 25 per cent among the territories, with the territories not entitled to anything from the LOCs' share, that is exactly what will happen.

Benefits for the economy

In other words, while the tourist industry, other businesses and the economy on the whole will benefit through sales and taxes from what cricket brings to the table - from a show put on by cricket - cricket, at the territorial level and below and certainly in Jamaica, will be as penniless or nearly as penniless as it was before.

That is unless the Jamaican Government has a heart and do what the Barbados Government has done, or plans to do.

Owen Arthur, Prime Minister of the country that is always ahead of the rest of the region when it comes to cricket and matters relating to cricket, has looked at it; he has seen where his country, on the whole and especially as far as its tourist industry is concerned, will enjoy tremendous economic benefit, he has seen the plight that cricket will be in when the show is over and he has said, it is reported, that whatever money his government has spent on the renovation of Kensington Oval and other things related to the World Cup is a gift to the Barbados Cricket Association and, therefore, to cricket in Barbados. That, in Jamaica, is what is meant by one hand washing the other.