I Hope The Kids Enjoy Their Tickets – They Cost Us Probably US$50,000 Each
Four Things Come To Mind …
1/ Cricket World Cup Barbados is in real trouble when you have to fill the stands with 10-year-olds on a school day.
2/ It is now a proven fact that the prohibition against food, drinks and musical instruments was not about security. It was firstly about money, and secondly about providing a “civilized” (read “British”) environment for Cricket World Cup… with none ‘o them noisy darkies all dancing around and blowin’ them damn conch shells ‘an tossing water an havin’ a good time. Whatever the reason for this decision by organisers – be it racism, cultural superiority or something else – they misjudged heavily. Our foreign guests wanted authentic Caribbean cricket as much as we did. The first foreign tourists and press sent back the word “Ho hum – just like watching at home.”
3/ The decisions made by Cricket World Cup organisers and agreed to by the Barbados government purged the Caribbean culture from our cricket and in one move killed local support from ordinary people. Further, the ticket prices were designed to keep the locals away. Cricket World Cup was designed from the start to exclude the local population from attending.
4/ The respective governments, including Barbados, surrendered control of their countries, cultures and economies to Cricket World Cup organizers when any damn fool could see the train wreck coming. The question that citizens should be asking is “Why did our politicians do this?”
5/ The manner in which Cricket World Cup West Indies was set up was a fraud – perpetrated on the Caribbean people by their governments and Cricket World Cup organisers.
Here’s how the fraud was set up…
a/ Local economic success of the games was not necessary for the ICC/Cricket World Cup to enjoy both financial and apparent “public” success. (In fact, an argument can be made that the Cricket World Cup relies upon sucking the economic lifeblood and cash from the host countries – more on that later.)
b/ As stupidly admitted by Cricket World Cup CEO Chris Dehring – the ICC, Chris Dehring, Stephen Alleyne and all the big boys made their money up front even before the games started. The vast majority of the Cricket World Cup profits were derived from prepaid sponsorships. Dehring even had the stupidity to brag about it (BFP story link here).
c/ All of the above was well known to the politicians and leaders who committed their countries’ economies to sponsoring Cricket World Cup – when any thinking person would know that a contract where the other party has already made their profits was a bad deal for the Caribbean. This was a totally one-sided deal where one side has already made their money by virtue of signing the contract, and the other side puts up the vast majority of the backing and assumes the entire risk.
Cricket World Cup will go on to the next venue in a few years saying that the West Indies was the wrong place, they just couldn’t pull it off, no local support etc etc etc – and the people of the Caribbean will be left paying for generations.
d/ Why would any political leadership allow the above to happen? Why would they sign into such an agreement?
Answer: Personal Gain.
It was a fraud, folks. Clear and simple.
Whether they fill those stands by giving away tickets to children or vagabonds on the streets – or IF locals now come for the last games, it doesn’t matter.
The money was all gone a long time ago – full stands or not.
Barbados Determined To Restore Local Flavour
CricInfo Australia
Stung by criticism that the World Cup has been robbed of most of its Caribbean flavour by strict regulations, the local organising committee (LOC) in Barbados have hit back by announcing that restrictions would be eased at the Kensington Oval.
Stephen Alleyne, the CEO of the LOC told reporters that matches in Barbados would be closer to tradional “calypso cricket” than has been the case so far. He said that measures were being put in place so that music and food could flow more freely. For example, he said people bringing musical instruments would get clearance at the gate on the day of the game, rather than having to get permission beforehand.
In a break with the official line, which has continued to insist the tournament is running smoothly, Alleyne admitted that things had not gone so well at other venues. He also said that some matches at the Oval were not sold out, mainly because sponsors had not taken up their allocations, and that spare tickets would be made available free of charge to local children. Furthermore, he hinted that ticket prices might be reduced “to encourage more folk in” although that would need to be cleared with the ICC.
“We need to ensure that the environment is such that everybody in there, whether Barbadian, West Indian or from further afield, can get the chance to experience what it is like to be at a Caribbean Test match, or in this case at a Kensington Test match, and we are working with CWC and the ICC as we speak to get that balance right,” he explained. “One of the things we are going to work to achieve is the bringing of musical instruments in – we’re going to simplify that process. We’re looking at how you can bring things like foodstuff and so on into the Oval [while] making sure there’s clarity around those things.”
… read the original article at CricInfo (link here)