Tony Becca, Contributing Editor
DEHRING (right)
The opening ceremony for the World Cup of cricket is scheduled for the multi-purpose stadium under constru-ction in Trelawny on Sunday, March 11. Based on the plans, it promises to be a spectacular event displaying the culture, lifestyle, heritage and other aspects of the Caribbean islands and Guyana.
Originally estimated to cost some US$5 million, the event, which according to the ICC CWC West Indies 2007 will be highly professional, entertaining and Pan-Caribbean in nature, will now cost some US$2 million and will be organised and produced, not by the ICC CWC West Indies 2007, but instead by Jamaica's Local Organising Committee (LOC) for ICC CWC 2007.
Originally, the ICC CWC WI 2007 had accepted bids to stage the event, but according to Chris Dehring, managing director of the ICC CWC WI 2007, they were coming in at any where between US$7 and US$9 million, and after looking at their overall expenditure preparing for the tournament, the organisers decided to scale down on its original plans.
The opening cere-mony, a joint venture between the ICC CWC West Indies 2007, the tourist boards in the eight participating countries and the eight LOCs, will be funded by all three with Jamaica coming up with US$1 million, the other countries and ICC CWC WI 2007 with the other million.
"We have decided to put together an opening ceremony to fit the pocket of the region and to suit the status of the event," said Dehring on Friday, "and that is what we are going to do."
According to Dehring, the aim of the opening ceremony is to sell the region. It is to gain international exposure for the region and because of that, it has got to be an attractive and top-class event, and will feature some of the world's best performers - locally and overseas.
"The opening ceremony is important to us as a region ... and what we produce must be of interest to international broadcasters," said Dehring.
Those words were echoed by Robert Bryan, executive director of the Jamaica LOC, and Martin Lewis, the man putting the show package together.
"Although we were asked late in the day to take over the responsibility to produce the show, the opening ceremony is important to us," said Bryan. "It is important because it is being staged in Jamaica and that is where we can really sell Jamaica and all the region to the entire world.
"We want the stadium to be packed to capacity, but obviously most of the people attending, 90-95 per cent of the people attending will be locals, will be Jamaicans. What is important, therefore, is what is transmitted to the world and we are doing our best, with the resources we have, to make it an unforgettable experience for those who view it."
According to Lewis, there will be some 1,500 performers involved in the show and although there will be some from each of the Caribbean islands, due to the cost the majority of them will be Jamaicans.
"The budget is small so we cannot afford to bring in a lot of bodies, neither to prepare nor to perform," said Lewis.
"What is important is not the size of it," said Lewis. "What is important is the quality - what the people see when it goes up for broadcast. The plan, therefore, is to have one overall theme representing the entire region, the theme will be "Caribbean Energy", and it will depict the common culture that binds the region together - the music, the dance, and the heritage of the people."
Although there will be some performers from around the Caribbean, a number of the people coming in to Jamaica to assist in the production will be teachers and trainers - people who teach Jamaicans to do, for example, a particular dance from a particular island.
The opening ceremony is scheduled for two hours and to start at 5:00p.m., not at two o'clock in the afternoon as was originally planned.
