WICB’s flashing Red

43

WICB and CWC2007
The WICB got the rights to the CWC2007 and immediately expected the governments of the region to do their part by investing in the upgrading and/or construction of the necessary infrastructure consistent with the expected standards for hosting the event.
The WICB has been in debt for several years and the organisation does not own any playing facilities in any of the islands.
In most of the countries whose national cricket associations constitute the membership of the WICB there is none that owns any playing facility.
In every cricketing nation in the Caribbean the main playing field used for regional and international cricket belongs either to a sports club or to the government. Barbados may well be the only exception.
In the case of Barbados the Kensington Oval is supposed to be owned by the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA).
However, at the same meeting in Christchurch, Owen Arthur once more put the spanner in the works. According to Arthur the BCA only owns the land on which the facility is placed. In other words as far as he is concerned the playing field itself and nothing more are what the BCA can lay claim to.
According to the Nation newspaper Arthur indicated that the government of Barbados owns 90 per cent of the property development company that had been set up to develop Kensington, with the BCA owning the rest.
The WICB therefore can only raise revenue by use of these fields and whatever sponsorship it can attract. The idea of a region-wide lottery for cricket has never been given much currency and the organisation’s sponsorship of regional events has been generally weak.
The hosting of the CWC2007 therefore appears to have been a case where the WICB was hoping to get the governments to make significant financial inputs, with nothing from the organisation itself and at the end of the competition, the latter would simply lick its lips as its treasury changed colour from red to hefty black.
At no stage during the lead up to the CWC2007 did we ever hear the WICB making any statements regarding its own financial inputs into the event.
Now that the event has concluded the WICB seems to have a perception that it has some right to the revenue generated at the gates in the various countries.