Oval not automatic for W/Cup

The managing director of Windies World Cup 2007 Inc, Chris Dehring has confirmed that Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad may not be an automatic choice to stage matches during the 2007 World Cup, unless and until there is improvement in the facility.

This would come as a major disappointment for the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board of Control (TTCBC) who are attempting to have a semi-final and even the final of the tournament staged in Port-of-Spain. “No one should think these events are just about sport,” Dehring said after monitoring events in South Africa. “Money only comes into sport because of economic realities and there is tremendous economic value to the Caribbean in the World Cup,” Dehring said.

The Jamaican estimates the economic windfall from tickets, sponsorship, broadcast rights and tourism could amount to US $500 million. A decision on the structure is expected by the end of the year following meetings between Dehring and the ICC, who own the tournament, and the Global Cricket Corporation, which represents television and commercial interests. But the structure is trifling for those island governments and administrators vying for the prize of hosting World Cup matches - governments with generation-old rivalries, personal pride and tourist income to think of. Dehring intends to use this to an advantage. “There is a very political environment in the West Indies,” he said. “We have been trying to use this competition to fuel an innovative spirit. Governments and companies are helping their countries. They are both anxious and excited,” the investment banker noted.

Since West Indies won the bid in 1998, Dehring has had hard truths to convey to the established cricketing powers of Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad and Barbados which, he says, have invested least precisely because they have not been sufficiently challenged over the years. The set-ups in Bridgetown, Kingston and Georgetown and Port-of-SPain were simply inadequate, while others had developed magnificent new facilities —- islands such as Grenada, Antigua, St Vincent and St Lucia. He praised St Lucia’s new venue as the “most fantastic cricket stadium you could ever imagine.”

The best cricket facilities, he added, would be these four. However, he said his message was getting home and upgrading was underway at several traditional venues. There has also been interest from outside the 14 territories that officially make up West Indies cricket, including the United States, whose presentation impressed Dehring. This brings us back to economics, because the ICC have long sought to break into the lucrative American market or, in Dehring’s words: “The ICC have a vision to spread the gospel (...and) we must be sensitive to the idea.”

The US plan a bespoke stadium in Florida. Suggestions that Disney World could act as hosts are wide off the mark: Disney World are owned by ABC News and ESPN, rival television companies to News Corp, who hold the rights to the World Cup. More fancifully, Canada are interested in staging matches indoors at the Toronto Skydome, outside temperatures in April being too low even for those familiar with the county ground at Derby. Host nations, of course, need not qualify to take part. Venues should be known by next year.