Welcoming the Cricket World Cup
Over Regulation
We are hosting warm up matches, not matches that impact the outcome of the competition in so far as they are really opportunities for the teams involved to engage in some final preparations. There is absolutely no reason therefore for us to have engaged in the heavy acceptance of every possible regulation that the ICC imposed.
One is not at all convinced that the WICB did enough to preserve the cricket culture that we have made for ourselves and which has proven to be decidedly attractive to the rest of the cricketing world.
For the licking of the spoon we may well have lost spoonful in respect of the extent to which we appear to have bent over backwards to accommodate the ICC. We have surrendered to the utmost. This seems to have been the point made by Sir Viv Richards some time ago when he delivered heavy criticism on the WICB.
Legacy
Legacy is the latest buzz word among members of every Local Organising Committee in the region.
Unfortunately this word has suddenly acquired political currency, moreso because it does appear that the leadership can find little else by way of justification for the near madness that has emerged among regional Governments and their LOCs.
Fazeer Mohammed notes, “It is easy to talk about legacy and vision. However, do the realities and limitations of our smaller island economies suggest that the legacy will really be a meaningful one, or that the vision of sustainability is overly optimistic?”
The experienced sports journalist was forced to ask the very pertinent question following his days of television coverage of the KFC Cup semi finals and finals in St Vincent and the Grenadines, 15–17 February 2007: “Skeptics like yours truly ask how can all this expense make sense when there is no guarantee, even moreso now with so many stadiums now in contention, that St Vincent will actually be included on the international cricket calendar every year from now on?”