Tony Becca

When Pat Rousseau and his West Indies Cricket Board, after lobbying the CARICOM Governments and getting their blessings, financially and otherwise, applied sometime around 1996 to host the World Cup and then were awarded it in 1998, I am positive they did not envisage the kind of expenditure, the sort of demands from the International Cricket Council (ICC) that are going on now as the region prepares for the event next March.

As far as the stands, the facilities, were concerned, I am positive that while they saw the need for some renovation here and there - the addition of a few seats and certainly improved sanitary conveniences and larger and more modern press boxes, they did not see the need for all these magnificent new stadiums which are popping up all over the region.

As far as, for example, security was concerned, they did not see the lengths that each territory would have to go in an effort to provide the kind of security that will prevent terrorist attacks.

As far as accommodation is concerned, they did not see the need for cruise ships in the harbours and as far as ambush marketing is concerned, they did not see it as a threat - to the extent that people will have to be careful, very careful, as to what they say and what they write during the World Cup.

Remembering that Test matches have been played in the region since 1930, that the people who loved cricket in those days used to line up from five, four and even as early as three o'clock in the morning to get a chance to see the matches, that the people used to fill out the grounds.

Remember that but for Barbados and later Antigua, there were only a handful of tourists on hand to witness the matches - be it the West Indies against England or the West Indies against Australia.

Remembering also that people, from time immemorial, carried their lunch baskets and their drinks, weak and strong, with them to matches, and remembering that one-day internationals have been played in the region since the late 1970s and that they have been played before sell-out crowds, Rousseau and his colleagues probably believed that like England, Australia, India and Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and to an extent Holland, it would not take much to host the World Cup.

Since 1999, however, there has been 9/11 and the terrorist attack in the United States of America, the world has not been the same since, and that is understandable. With the World Cup being held next door to the United States of America, with countries like England and Australia participating in it, it is a prime target for terrorists.

Questions to be answered

There are a few questions which must be answered, however, and as one who has been to a number of World Cup tournaments, some of them are:

Why all these new stadiums with increased seating when in previous tournaments, some of the matches have been played in much smaller stadiums - in stadiums with a clubhouse and sometimes one other stand and temporary seats to a total of not more than seven or eight thousand?

According to the organisers, there will be hundreds of thousands of visitors to the region. The question is this, however: where will they be coming from - the thousands that have the organisers talking about cruise ships, the thousands which have never been present at any previous World Cup?

While the part of the proposed Sunset Legislation which deals with immigration and customs is understandable because of the number of territories involved, why a Red Zone that would impact on people's businesses?

The last question is this: if companies like Motor Sales to the north of Sabina Park, and Keith Ryan and Company to the south of Sabina Park, not to mention the small businesses in the area, lose money because of the World Cup, who will compensate them?

As far as the stadiums are concerned, that is a waste of money - and definitely so when it is remembered that all the groups comprise two weak teams and two strong teams and that some of the matches, regardless of the cost, will attract only a few thousand die-hards, and some of them not much more than that?

In Group D, for example, there will be six matches, and of those six matches, while there should be and will be a bumper crowd at the West Indies/Pakistan encounter, there will be hardly anyone at the Ireland/ Zimbabwe encounter, there may be a few more at the Pakistan/Zimbabwe and the Pakistan/Ireland encounters, there will be a few more at the West Indies matches against Ireland and Zimbabwe, and no amount of marketing, St. Patrick's Day or no St. Patrick's Day, the sea and sun or not, will change that.

Cricket fans, but for England's 'Balmy Army', have never travelled abroad in their hundreds much more in their thousands to see their team in action, and although this one is being held in the Caribbean, in probably the most beautiful place in the world, it does not seem that things will change.

That may be why the rules of purchasing tickets have changed in so far as the number of tickets one person can purchase, and that is why, after they went on sale the first time, more tickets are now available to locals.