Ian S Mohan, a teacher based in Trinidad, was one of many volunteers who are helping out at World Cup venues.
Here is an excerpt from Ian’s “Crushing The Essence Of The Caribbean” at CricInfo…
It dawned to me that the ICC does not care about our little countries and our economies. They are alien to the socio-economic status and the way of life of the spectators of cricket, and the culture of the peoples of the Caribbean, and even Asia … for that matter, the world. They care only about image, ambush marketing, television and money.
They don’t care about the people who keep cricket alive: us. Thousands of real cricket fans stayed away – they said they had self respect and pride and would not pay money to be treated this way. I now understand their view and feel that I compromised my self respect to be part of the tournament. We were told how to talk, how to smile, how to welcome the tourists, how to speak. We had a handbook to learn from.
The ICC twisted the arms of small island states to institute draconian laws to facilitate the World Cup. Why? We have been holding ODIs for 30 years, and win, lose, or draw, the end was peaceful. The biggest terrorist in the Caribbean is rain, as it threatens any game. We were stripped of our water, food, and our true West Indian flavor that visitors come to the Caribbean to take part in. We were told to sit quiet, not to be too loud, not to disturb the spectators … but to have fun and enjoy the game. Bull.
How can you enjoy a cricket match and not show your enthusiasm or disgust? The biggest joke was that the nuts man, who in Trinidad tosses his packs from the front row to anywhere in the stands, was told by ICC that he has to deliver in hand the packets. No one has never been hit and if so only his pride is dented for not being able to make a clean catch.
The nuts man also had to change his sales pitch – his unique call – to that of “Nuts! Nuts!”. Our nuts men also are walking comedians, giving and taking jokes, but not at the World Cup. They were censured. They took the abuse for the high prices and said meet them at the next ODI series and they would give you the answer. You could have seen the agony, instead of pride, in the nuts men at this gala event. Oh, and the nuts were TT$6 – at a normal ODI they would be half the price. We bought, only to save the nuts men from bankruptcy, for they are as essential as the umpires to cricket in the Caribbean.
… read the entire article at CricInfo (link here)
13 Comments
April 14, 2007 at 7:41 pm
BFP all I can do is continue to laugh at the leaders of the Caribbean regions’ what a PACK OF JOKER’S they all are. O$A leads the pack of jokers, all hands on deck now.
April 14, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Some of the Voluntares of CWC have decided not to continue because as far as they are concerned from all the talk they have been hearing that the bigups getting all the money and no one has seen it fit to even give them a small stipend.
Certainly some of the BDS$30 mil could have been better spent paying the voluntares. How do you think the voluntares feel knowing that Owen and his friends getting all the money for CWC…so they are saying” you can’t take a smile to the bank”
April 14, 2007 at 9:08 pm
Here is the beginning of an interesting article on Cricinfo.
A game of haves and have not
An amateur solution in a professional world
Martin Williamson
April 13, 2007
Daan van Bunge: is his retirement a sign of things to come? © Getty Images
Amid all the World Cup headlines, one piece of news from Holland understandably slipped under the radar. Daan van Bunge, who is destined to be forever introduced as the man who Herschelle Gibbs smashed for six sixes in an over, announced that he was retiring from international cricket.
In itself, that’s not earth-shattering news. He is just one of many players who will choose to bow out after the game’s biggest tournament. The difference is that van Bunge is 24, talented, and represents the future for Netherlands cricket.
The reason he gave for his decision was that he could not commit the necessary time to play for his country as well as pursue a full-time job. That should set alarm bells ringing across all the Associates and within the offices of the ICC. There is a real danger that as the demands on part-time cricketers increase, more will decide that balancing those with other aspects of their lives is not practical.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This is the essence of what has happened with WI Cricket.
West Indies is not a country, it certainly is not in the opinion of Prof. Beckles “a nation imagined”. Even if it were, the collective GDPs of all of the countries cannot compare with India, Pakistan, South Africa or Australia.
These larger countries have the werewithal to pump large sums into sport we do not.
We were great at cricket in the past because we played for the love of the game. It was an art form for us.
Cricket is no longer a game, or a sport we play for love.
It is all about money. We cannot compete in this game.
We need to realise that cricket has developed into something which is different from the sport at which we excelled long ago …….. and also we have developed into people who are different to those who played for love, ……. long, long ago.
Maybe we should just accept this and move on, with or without cricket.
Our leaders and the ICC have actually done us a fovour. They have provided the fiasco which can but only open our eyes.
…. we’ll be paying for it for years, but at least now, unless we are complete idiots, the penny will have dropped and we will know we have to make our way in this world on our own.
Up till now, we have been taken for a ride by people who we believed had our interests at heart.
It is time to wake up!!
April 14, 2007 at 9:16 pm
And to think that Owen Arthur having lead responsibilty for the CSME…sanctioned such EMASCULATION of windies cricket fans….!
And to think that Mia Mottley as CHIEF of SECURITY operations for CWC 2007……. sanctioned such EMASCULATION of windies cricket fans….!
And to think that Noel Lynch as a member of the Committee of CARICOM Tourism Ministers for CWC 2007……. sanctioned such EMASCULATION of windies cricket fans….!
Now after AGREEING to such stringent measures against windies cricket fans….the 3 of these BLP……ARCHCRIMINALS now seeking to blame everybody EXCEPT themselves….!
These 3 BLP……ARCHCRIMINALS…got to be NUTS…..!
April 14, 2007 at 11:08 pm
BFP,
Can you imagine that the LOC is decided to throw open the gates at the Oval tomorrow free after 11 a.m.
This is totally outragious…….the vendors are also complaining because they have paid as much as $8000 for the rental of stalls and now people are being allowed to bring their food.
Apparently Stephen (little god) Alleyne said they had predicted an Indian/Pakistan clash and that is why there are so many tickets left.
Can you imagine the amount of foolishness that is going on. These guys are gamblers..and foolish ones…..they had gambled away our fortunes…….All of them must be charged.
April 14, 2007 at 11:23 pm
Apparently Stephen (little god) Alleyne said they had predicted an Indian/Pakistan clash and that is why there are so many tickets left.
______________________________
Very strange, they told us the Indians / Pakistanis had already bought all the tickets…!
1.****** Were they REFUNDABLE tickets…?
2.****** If so, why were these tickets being offered on e – Bay and other sites….?
April 14, 2007 at 11:28 pm
Jerome,
Isn’t it obvious that the ticket sales for tomorrow did not go as anticipated by the LOC?
Why should anybody but tickets for the finals given the possibility that they may be admitted free of cost?
It is also obvious that Stephen Alleyne and the lot are not entrepreneurs…not even good managers….they have fooled us all along with thier public image which was never before put to the test.
WE NEED A COMMISSION OF ENQUIRY ON CWC IN THE CARIBBEAN.
April 14, 2007 at 11:44 pm
Not ALL islands in the Caribbean will bear the brunt full on. Don’t forget there was an article a few months cautioning the smaller islands from moving ahead and selling their stadia? Well joke maybe on those companies that agreed to buy them…
Lease stadia, but don’t sell! – by PHILIP SPOONER
October 19, 2006
http://archive.nationnews.com/archive_detail.php?archiveFile=./pubfiles/bar/archive/2006/October/19/27663.xml&start=0&numPer=20&keyword=selling+stadium§ionSearch=&begindate=1%2F1%2F1994&enddate=4%2F14%2F2007&authorSearch=&IncludeStories=1&pubsection=&page=&IncludePages=1&IncludeImages=1&mode=allwords&archive_pubname=Daily+Nation%09%09%09
(SNIP)
SEVERAL HIGH-LEVEL INVESTORS have been making trips around the Caribbean with a view to getting their hands on the Cricket World Cup (CWC) stadia after the tournament is finished.
Chris Dehring, managing director and chief executive officer of the tournament, is advising regional governments not to sell the 12 facilities. He said it would be better to lease them, if approached.
(/SNIP)
Whoever ignored him just might recoup some of their $$$ back.
April 15, 2007 at 12:10 am
John
I was thinking exactly the same thing today, strangely enough, though I don’t know as much as you.
In the Caribbean we have no infrastructure that generates sufficient, or indeed any, remuneration for a young cricketer to make a career out of it. Without this, and with the wide range of choices available, it does appear that athletic youths (who may also be academically inclined towards scholarships) may well make an alternate choice of sport.
What to do? We lamented the loss of access by our cricketers to County Cricket, which has in some quarters been opined to have precipitated the demise of the West Indian greatness.
Well, we now have the cricket grounds, and despite the fact that it seems presently far-fetched that we can afford even the upkeep and interest, perhaps legacy and UWI have a plan that we don’t yet know. One would hope so, since everything built at UWI Barbados contains at least a subliminal cricket icon, if not an overt one.
I sure hope that cricket doesn’t fade away and signal another sort of demise at UWI and in the Caribbean, ie the demise of our societal attitudes and economies?
If it is said the ICC doesn’t care, can one ask whether England, who owned us for several hundred years does? Do the ICC and MCC realise that we are at a crossroads and could well go lower than the minnows in time?
If this is so, they will see that without their support in tangible opportunity ongoing we will lose cricket to the largest extent. And having seen this they will start to open their doors of opportunity to our cricketers, letting us in, and sending their tours to the Caribbean, and much else also.
I regret to remind that we in Barbados are responsible for a great deal of the equity that ended up in UK during the sugar era, which created many titles, and funded much land acquisition in UK. We are still the jewel in the crown, and it is this partially that brings many of the ex-patriots here to buy property. They identify with us, and though we don’t admit it, we (mostly) identify with them too.
Maybe people in other countries are reading this, maybe not. If our Legacy organisation does start to make overtures, perhaps there will be opportunity. We will see.
April 15, 2007 at 12:34 am
someone suggests
“WE NEED A COMMISSION OF ENQUIRY ON CWC IN THE CARIBBEAN.”
it has to be a CARICOM Commission of Enquiry
April 15, 2007 at 4:00 am
CARICOM is too far from Eur-Asia (Afterall- in Europe only really Britain is into the Cricket) the rest of the fans are all in Asia with the exception of Canada in this hemisphere. CARICOM would have been better off building stadiums for FIFA because Brazil + Latin America is juss next door.
BUT WAIT—- (To any leader in the Caribbean reading this.) This does not—- mean that I’m advocating now building stadiums for football….
April 15, 2007 at 6:46 pm
…. baseball might work too!
April 21, 2007 at 1:41 am
I have heard some really good comments from volunteers about the programme, and how fun it is to serve your country with such an image. I think it’s a good programme.