PM: No TT bid for any major World Cup cricket game

Government, as part of its strategy to consolidate Caricom support for its FTAA bid, has decided to concede Trinidad and Tobago’s right to bid to host any of the major games in the 2007 World Cup Cricket. “I don’t want to say that we are Mr Rake and Scrape. But whatever the other countries do not take up, Trinidad and Tobago is prepared to take up,” Manning told a post-Cabinet news conference yesterday. The deadline for  the bid arrangements  were due in Barbados by 7.30 last night.

Manning said that while TT will put in “a proposal,” “we have been very mindful of the role of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean on this matter, and very cautious that we do nothing to give the impression in the Caribbean that we are grabbing.” “Our improved prosperity within recent times and therefore  influence in the region, has itself been a source of some discord. We have advanced ourselves for the candidacy for the headquarters of the FTAA, and on that matter we have gained the support of all Caricom countries to the point where some (lobbying) missions abroad are headed by Ministers of Caricom Governments.

What Trinidad and Tobago didn’t want to do is to compete against these very countries (who are supporting us for the FTAA) in respect of world cricket where the benefits to accrue would be much more needed by these countries than TT. And therefore Trinidad and Tobago decided to defer,” Manning stated. The Prime Minister said Trinidad and Tobago had taken steps to host “whatever we are asked to host.” But this country would not be bidding for any particular package, he explained.