Our CWC2007 Preparations

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Unfortunately we learnt nothing from our successes. We introduced no genuine or intelligible development plan for the game in the region. We climbed the ladder of success without ever attempting to consider what it would take to make it sustainable.
Essentially, despite our years at the top of international Cricket in all its versions at the time the WICB did not prepare itself and the sport in the region for the response of the countries that were involved in the game before us and who did not take kindly to our command of it.
Our weakness in the face of the response of the developed world in Cricket forced us to cow under their pressures and accept the ICC ruling delimiting the number of bouncers used in an over.
We lost this element of control even as the ICC placed at its helm a former West Indies Cricketer of immense talent, the late Clyde Walcott.
We were later forced out of professional cricket in England, at one time the bedrock of our development. We never developed the game at home being ever reliant on the Mother Country for guidance and development.
Once out in the cold our game suffered and today we crave an audience at local and regional matches for no one seems interested beyond the players of the game.
The embarrassment in the form of so few in attendance at the semi final and final of the KFC Cup at Arnos Vale over the previous weekend speaks volumes to the state of the game in the region, even as we prepare to host the Cricket World Cup.
The modus of the WICB does not inspire confidence.
The fact of hosting the Cricket World Cup, in and of itself, cannot change the way the WICB conducts business. The leopard does not readily change its spots.
Our preparations for the Cup leave much to be desired.
The buzz word, legacy, may be nothing more than another fanciful concept that serves its time only for the 58 days of the tournament.