Rethink Third World image

THE EDITOR: On Saturday May 10, 2003 a newspaper carried a report concerning the inspection of the new National Stadium in Grenada by one of Mr Chris Dehring’s, 2007 World Cup organiser, “professional venue development master planners” in connection with the staging of the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Most of the recommendations were of a nature that Mr Dehring himself, if he is worth the job he is doing, would have picked up during his visit to South Africa to witness the 2003 World Cup. Indeed, I myself, picked them up by watching the games on television.

The trouble with us here in the Caribbean is that we have this huge inferiority complex, no self-confidence. We always have to bring in the so-called foreign expert to tell us what to do, to give the stamp of approval to our endeavours. However, there was one very curious recommendation by this “master planner”: he recommended, indeed insisted, that the seating capacity of the new stadium be increased from the present 15,000 to 30,000. Absolute rubbish! The island of Grenada is approximately 133 sq miles with an approximate population of 125,000. There is no way that such a small island with such a small population is ever going to fill a 30,000-seat stadium. Here in Trinidad with a population of over one million, we built four stadia a few years ago for an international football tournament. Since their construction not one of these stadia has ever been filled to capacity, not even during the tournament for which they were built. From the point of view of their seating capacity, they are in fact white elephants. During the recently concluded 2003 World Cup in South Africa the opening game between the home team, South Africa, and the West Indies in Capetown attracted a crowd of 25,000. Capetown is a city of approximately 170 sq miles and a population of 1.5 million.

Of the 15 venues utilised during the 2003 World Cup in South Africa only three had a capacity of a little over 25,000 at the top end, and five had a capacity of 8,000 to 12,000 at the bottom end; the rest were in between. What is more, on very few occasions during the tournament were any of these grounds filled to capacity. Perhaps Mr Dehring could provide us with the average attendance at matches during the first round. Why then should this “master planner” make such an absurd recommendation? The answer is perfectly clear to me. People from First World countries take a delight in dictating to people from Third World countries especially when we, the Third World countries, pay them fabulous sums to do so. They delight in setting for us standards that they themselves do not adhere to.  Many of the grounds that were used for the 2003 World Cup were very ordinary country club grounds, possessing only one decent-looking pavilion and with extensive grassy embankments, plus a few temporary structures constructed for the occasion. If some of these grounds were approved by “master planners,” then we could stage some of the 2007 matches in the savannah. However we so lack confidence in ourselves that we ignore the evidence before us via the television, that is to say the very ordinary grounds World Cup matches have been played on from its inception, and we go around denigrating ourselves by proclaiming that our grounds are not up to World Cup standards, as if such a thing exists.

BERTRAM HARRIS
Belmont