'Who's Getting the World Cup Money?'

There's a boardroom brawl brewing in the Caribbean over the World Cup money pot. And, in Jamaican cricket columnist Tony Becca's opinion, the regional governments are being unfair in their demands for the bulk of the 2007 tournament revenue.

In a Sunday column for the Jamaica Gleaner, Becca insists it is "far from reasonable" for the Caribbean governments to demand the lion's share of World Cup pot at a time when the WICB badly needs money to fund cricket development in the region.

"As a cricket event, the money, most of it, should obviously go to cricket - to the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and its affiliates - for the development of cricket. That, however, may not be the case. In fact, cricket, West Indies cricket, may get nothing at all," Becca warned.

For several months, Becca said Caribbean government representatives and officials of the WICB have been meeting to decide how the spoils should be shared. "The way things are going, West Indies cricket will be left in the cold."

"The governments, it seems, want the lion's share, and the reasoning, it appears, is that they are coming up with the money to renovate existing grounds or to build new stadiums, to meet other requirements as stipulated by the International Cricket Council (ICC), and because of that the profits should be theirs - especially as the WICB will be receiving about US$108 million from the ICC," he wrote.

"While that looks reasonable on the surface, it is far from reasonable."

He said the WICB's World Cup bid hinged on the explicit encouragement of the governments who also gave the ICC a guarantee. While acknowledging that the governments will be financing or partly financing the renovation of or the building of stadiums, Becca maintains it is "unreasonable to expect their money back after just one event," suggesting the financial benefits could come from future revenues.

"The third reason is that the US$108 million from the ICC is simply to organise and run the tournament...According to information coming out of the board, it has estimated that the cost to organise and run the tournament will be about US$67 million, that means they could save about US$41 million, and that would be wonderful."

"The problem, however, is that if anything goes wrong, there will be penalties and as South Africa, hosts of the 2003 event, are finding out, the penalties can add up to a whole lot of money ? much more than what can be saved out of the US$108 million."

Becca added: "In other words, if the WICB is not careful, instead of ending up with some money, it could end up owing a lot of money."

He proposed the governments take into account the non-tangible benefits of hosting cricket's premier tournament. "One suggestion is that with so many thousands of visitors in the region, with so much money expected to go into the coffers of the governments from the many forms of taxes, with the prime time advertisement that the region will get as a tourist destination and therefore the possibility of more tourists and more money in the years to come, the governments should settle for that and allow cricket to get the money it needs to develop the game which they all claim to love."

"Regardless of what the governments and the WICB agree on, at the end of the day, the bulk of the money coming into the region will end up with the hotels and others in the service industries and remembering that it is cricket that will be bringing the tourists into the region, they should, if they have a conscience, share the spoils with cricket."

He added: "It would be a shame, however, if when the World Cup of cricket is over, cricket, West Indies cricket, has nothing to show - no money to ensure the future of the game, no money to spend on the proper and full development of the players, and remembering the disappointment of the people in recent years over the poor performance of the regional team, no money to build a strong West Indies team."