Shaping up for World Cup 2007

Infrastructure
Moving around the Caribbean one recognises that not every potential host of anything to do with the Cricket World Cup appears to be on the same page in respect of infrastructural development.
Some, like St Vincent and the Grenadines, appear bent on the creation of major changes to the existing facility while seemingly uncertain of where the funding would come from. Everyone simply claims that it would happen, almost as if it is something magical rather than physical. The work at Arnos Vale began with the removal of the walls adjacent to the sea and not enough thought appears to have been given, at least initially, to the security of existing equipment at the venue.
Others are hopeful that the changes would be made in time for the World Cup, even if that means completing the project the day before it is needed and that patrons may well be sitting on partially dried paint whilst enjoying the entertainment in midfield.
As with leadership styles in the region, every country involved in the Cricket World Cup preparations appears to be doing something different in terms of infrastructure, struggling, in the process, to outdo each other with little attention to costs and to the long term benefits and the ultimate legacy associated thereto.
One can only pity Dominica’s decision to change from the plans to establish Windsor Park into a major Track and Field and Football Stadium to a Chinese built Cricket Ground. There is no way that the Windward Islands would attract more international cricket than is already the case and whatever comes must be shared among the four.
Infrastructural development is certainly not one of the region’s strong points and where sports facilities are concerned we are perhaps weakest.
In a sense it does appear that the little king tots that have been created with the West Indies hosting the World Cup may well have their heads too far in the clouds to see anything but their opportunities for greatness etched out before them and these, in their own image and likeness.

Transportation
Even as the region benefits from the presence of more airlines plying Caribbean routes the more complicated, confusing and frustrating air travel becomes.
Here at home the ET Joshua Airport’s Arrivals Hall, once hailed as an example of the good work of the National beautification Committee, is so full of luggage that the airlines were unable to bring along with their owners that the Immigration Officers have to be careful that they are not overrun in the process. It is most unsightly in addition to the frustration that it has been for travellers.
It seems therefore that during the Cricket World Cup, regular passengers may well find that their luggage is considered secondary to that of the cricketers who are moving between playing venues.
Information coming from those responsible for the World Cup is so thin that the average man in the street is led to believe that the organisational details are the property of some secret lodge.
One hears of offers having been made to provide air transport for the entire competition but even so there are problems looming given our historical experience, enough to frighten us.
Bear in mind that transportation is but one of the major hurdles to be confronted in the planning exercise.