The missing investment

commentary by VANEISA BAKSH

Caricom Governments invested upward of US$ 500 million to host the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 – stadia alone accounted for just over US$ 300 million – a figure said to be more than the entire cost of CWC 2003 to hosts, South Africa. Such an investment was based on projected returns that were highly optimistic, if not reckless, according to one Caribbean economist.

Responding to warnings from the International Monetary Fund that the net effect of the CWC could be negative, Jwala Rambarran, a former adviser to the IMF's executive director, criticized regional governments for accepting glowing projections from one CWC consultant without seeking second opinions.

He recommended that a sports tourism marketing plan be urgently devised to at least keep hotel occupancy around 75% and predicted a post-CWC economic slump. How long and how deep it would be is anybody's guess, but it would depend on how far ahead planners and policy makers were visualizing in their CWC strategies.

As CWC matches approached the final matches with crowd attendances thickening after a scant showing for opening stages, CWC 2007 Inc. issued a statement defending ticket prices and insisting that average attendance for the group stage and the Super Eights was 7,550 and that ticket revenues by then had grossed US$28 million. This was in mid-April with two weeks to go, and if by tournament's end a couple million dollars were added, it would still be a long way from break-even and might more realistically be closer to a breakdown.

Regional governments could not have been so naïve to believe that they would get back dollar for dollar from this enterprise. The understanding was that this would be the catalyst for tourism development, improved facilities and infrastructural development – not only through new or refurbished stadia, but in hotels, roads, airports, restaurants, transportation (air, sea and land) and service-related industries.

THE GROSSEST MISCALCULATON

The grossest miscalculation was not so much in the expenditure in these areas, which could still provide worthwhile yields with strategic marketing and planning, but it came from the innards of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), which ignored a vital element of this enterprise's success.From 1998, when the event was awarded to the West Indies, the focus had been on raising capital for the aforementioned projects. Wooing governments, the WICB never thought that its reciprocal responsibility was to invest in the development of its players.

Remaining as negligently unaware as the governments they courted that the imperative of modern society is to develop its human resource to become competitive in the global economy, they did not see it fit to invest in education, training facilities and structured programmes. Ironically, it was the neglect of this resource that led to the lack of negotiating capability which ultimately opened the threat of an economic slump.

In today's world, where technology has made traditional production methods obsolete, the focus is not to industrialise or to create robotic societies merely capable of assembling commodities, but to create thinkers. It is especially important for small island societies lacking the scale to make mass production viable.

The WICB blithely proceeded without taking cognisance that their own product had fallen below international cricket standards. It constitutes either bizarre ignorance or wilful negligence, as it was no secret where the West Indies stood in the world order, loitering only above Bangladesh, Kenya and Zimbabwe in the standings.

For over ten years, the WICB had been urged to invest in development programmes as the team had been suffering defeat after miserable defeat to the horror of a populace that was never reconciled to the idea that the glorious days of West Indian cricket supremacy had ended.

DIVIDE AND RULE

Instead of nurturing players, it continued to broker deals that provoked acrimony from the increasingly powerful West Indies Players' Association, headed by former Test player, Dinanath Ramnarine. Under the premise of divide and rule, it conducted its affairs with such secrecy and intrigue that no one within its precincts could trust the other. By the time of the CWC, it was clear that every possible relationship had become dysfunctional: administrators vs. administrators, administrators vs players, players vs players, administrators vs the players' body, even prime ministers vs prime ministers.

With all vital relations in shambles, there was no will to invest in development as the whole caboodle stumbled from crisis to crisis.

Perhaps the WICB had not assimilated cricket's evolution, or examined the steps taken by other Test nations to improve their game. Perhaps they never understood the heart of the success of the 1970s and 1980s. Unable to understand the true concept of education, they interpreted it to mean academies and other formal structures of learning, and argued that the titans of the past never had it and didn't require it.

Deryck Murray, part of that legendary team, was quoted as saying that, "In the amateur days, people didn't realise the serious structure, albeit informal, that we went through. Our administrators didn't see it. They thought a Gary Sobers fell out of a tree."

They probably also thought he should be hoisted back into its branches, because for years they alienated all the former great players.

But it was not just the informal aspect they excluded; there was equal contempt for conventional training and fitness. In December 2006, the West Indies trainer resigned and his post remains empty even as a damning physio's report was being circulated during the tournament.

Yes, said the retired media-magnate turned WICB President, Ken Gordon, we do have a development plan, but the Board is in debt and cannot afford to implement it. The Development Plan of which he spoke may be either one from the former Development Officer Michael Seepersaud, who left a few years ago, frustrated that he was never given resources, or from the more recently resigned coach Australian Bennett King, or it may be both. In any case, all developmental or cultural projects have been relegated to back burners because to engage them would mean investing time and political popularity in areas known for slow yields. No WICB Director has thought it worth his seat to support costly measures that would not show immediate returns.

OPPORTUNITY LOST

So the opportunity to create out of this event a niche for sports tourism was lost. With its naturally welcoming climate and improved facilities, the region could have easily marketed itself as the place for training and development … if it could demonstrate high performance standards.

Given concern over increasing crime and youthful offenders, investment in sport goes far towards promoting healthier, well-rounded individuals. But without developing athletes inviting emulation, youthful interest could hardly blossom.

"It's all okay to build stadiums that are the best in the world" said Courtney Browne, former Test player, "but are you building cricketers? At the end of the day our cricketers are short-changed because we aren't taking them to the next level."

It was not just cricketers who were short-changed. It was an opportunity missed in many ways, as eyes were never attuned to the possibility that if we took them to the next level, in return they would take us there too.