Mitchell ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada (CMC):
PRIME MINISTER Dr Keith Mitchell says while there are some problems with the Cricket World Cup (CWC), this is not the time for Caribbean people to be doing a post-mortem of the region's hosting of the global event.
"I would certainly accept the fact that the region as a whole needs to have looked at some of the issues, and after the World Cup we need to put ourselves in a position to examine some of the agreements that we have had, and say to ourselves the next time around, some of these things we agreed to we may not necessarily have to do so," Mitchell told CMC.
"I think that is the position we should take; I think that Caribbean people still must realise this is the middle of the World Cup and they are looking forward to the success of this event," he said.
However, the Prime Minister conceded that evidence from the early rounds of the tournament indicated that the issue of maintaining the region's culture at games should have featured heavily at the negotiation stage.
"There is no doubt in my mind that it affected the interest of being at the games ... it would have in fact turned off some people by the limitations of the musical aspect of the competition.
"But I also think another major factor and we're still dealing with culture - the food. People love to take their own dishes to the game, their little boxes with their family to the games as part of the whole process, and I think by the restriction in the early stages affected the interest of being at the specific sites the games were being held at," he added.
Contribution
Mitchell said both tournament organisers and governments on the whole might have contributed to a situation where misinformation also impacted on attendances.
"I think we have to accept responsibility for not being as aggressive and I think more proactive in our public relation there is no doubt in my mind that was a major draw back that we created for ourselves," he added.
The Prime Minister said even before the end of the tournament it was clear that there would be some benefits from the seven-week event.
"We are seeing a lot of positive thing in the region as a whole in a general sense. So yes there are issues we have to deal with and I would like us to look at it critically after the World Cup is over but I think we need to put foot forward.
"Grenada is putting its best foot forward and Grenada is looking forward to the Super Eights series here. We love our West Indies team to perform and do the best they can, but whether or not the West Indies succeed in terms of moving forward, Grenada is ready for World Cup 2007 and Supers Eights and we are absolutely looking forward to the games," he added.
