Cricket Chiefs At A Crossroads

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Speed - one of the chief culprits.

By Tristan Holme

In many respects, you would have to say that Saturday's farce was a fitting end to what has been a ridiculous tournament in several ways.

For a start there is no doubt that it was too long, something which even Malcolm Speed has admitted. There were too many teams involved and as a result, tightly-contested matches were few and far between. Of the 19 games that I've attended, only three could be classified as thrilling affairs.

The tournament also lacked the atmosphere that one would expect of a major sporting showpiece, with games played in front of stadiums that were close to empty, without the Caribbean vibe that was meant to be the hallmark ingredient.

But most criminally of all, the impact on the region was not nearly as successful as the ICC predicted and continue to claim, and I wouldn't be surprised if countries have lost a fair amount of money as a result. While a lot of that money would have gone into infrastructure that was greatly needed anyway, there are also plenty of instances where it has been a huge waste.

When a country or region hosts a major sporting event, the people should expect to benefit. It might not be in a financial sense, but they would at least expect to have an opportunity to watch a world-class spectacle in the flesh, or meet people from other countries and share their knowledge and experiences with them.

Passing time in a St Lucian restaurant I happened to overhear three locals speaking about this issue, and it was clear that they were far from satisfied with the event as a whole. Chief organiser Chris Dehring has been harping on about the legacy of this World Cup to anyone who would listen, but these locals were far from convinced.

"What legacy? Most people came, they went to the stadium and afterwards they went and partied. After that they were too incoherent to appreciate St Lucia or interact with St Lucians," said one.

Another agreed, before giving the perfect explanation for why locals failed to turn up for matches in their droves: "West Indians don't like to party under restrictions."

Of course the other reason was the price of tickets, which completely failed to take into consideration what most West Indian people could afford to pay for the pleasure of watching a cricket match.

"The ICC got their money and the Caribbean people paid for it," they concluded, and it was difficult to argue.

With all this in mind it was rather refreshing to hear the boos ring out across Kensington Oval as the ICC officials got their final moment of 'glory'. I'm not sure how audible the abuse was to those watching the television broadcast around the world, but I can assure you that the message to Percy Sonn, Malcolm Speed, Chris Dehring and the ICC heirarchy was clear.

The time has come for the governing body to re-examine what it's all about, because this World Cup has shown them up for being far more concerned about making truckloads of money than for ensuring that cricket fans around the globe get as much entertainment from the game as possible.

Hopefully, as they go to bed in their silk linen after this farce, they will give just a little thought as to why they got such a hostile reception, because if they fail to listen to the people they are meant to be serving then the game of cricket has a real problem.

It's not all doom and gloom, but the ICC have reached a crossroads and they need to admit their mistakes and learn from them if they are to avoid a repeat of the embarrassment suffered during the ninth World Cup.