Commentary: Cricket, the IMF and West Indian pride
|
| Published on Saturday, April 21, 2007 |
Email To Friend Print Version |
By Sir Ronald Sanders
To paraphrase Sir Walter Scott: if there breathe a West Indian whose heart within him did not burn as the West Indies cricket team played an opponent his soul would be dead.
 |
Sir Ronald Sanders is a business
executive and former Caribbean
diplomat who publishes widely
on small states in the global
community. Reponses to:
ronaldsanders29@hotmail.com |
Over the last few weeks as the Cricket World Cup (CWC) tournament has been played in the West Indies, the chests of West Indians all over the world have swelled with pride that their small countries have successfully hosted the tournament despite the enormous challenges involved.
This feeling of pride was wonderfully captured by the writer, poet and sugar industry executive, Ian McDonald in an insightful article entitled, “Give Credit”, about the new cricket stadium in Guyana when he said:
“Should we not be enthused by the overall success that was achieved against so many odds and obstacles and should we not praise to the full those who worked tirelessly to bring off this astonishing endeavour – building the Stadium, getting the infrastructure done, cleaning the city and surroundings, securing the event, administering the logistics, welcoming the visitors?
“Personally I shall never forget the rush of pride and excitement I experienced when I walked with my wife and son and friends into the Stadium at Providence for the first time and joined the bustle and enthusiasm of the filled to capacity crowd. The friendliness of the volunteers and staff at every turn was a great help.”
Significantly, Ian McDonald went on to say: “The abject, spineless performance by the West Indies team on the field against Sri Lanka that day and the rain-clouds scudding overhead could not lessen or dampen for me the greatness of the occasion or the feeling of exhilarating self-worth.”
While the hopes of West Indians were lifted with expectation that the West Indies would do well and might even win the tournament as they used to do, the only burning in the hearts of West Indians came not from the flame of pride but from the blister of disappointment as their team gave one miserable performance after another eventually being knocked out before the semi-finals.
The West Indian team seems to have lost the understanding that winning at cricket against the teams of places such as England and Australia; India and Pakistan; South Africa and New Zealand is integral to West Indian self-respect. It proves that West Indians can be victorious over others bigger and more powerful than ourselves. Such victory gives the West Indian a reason for self-belief and for pride in a world in which West Indians are marginalised.
West Indians do not expect to win every game, but they do expect the team to go down fighting.
So while West Indians everywhere would have shared Ian McDonald’s feelings about the West Indian team performance, many would also have shared his sentiments about the effort to be ready to host the CWC games in Guyana, Antigua, St Kitts, St Lucia, Grenada, Trinidad, Jamaica and Barbados.
All the host countries spent a great deal of resources trying to ensure that West Indians everywhere could hold their heads high in terms of the quality of the stadia in which the games were held; the appropriateness of accommodation at which visitors stayed; and the warmth of the reception with which visitors were received.
This joy in this effort will be dampened by a recent report of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which says that “the long term net impact of CWC is unclear in light of the associated fiscal costs”. According to the IMF, “the net effect of the CWC could well be negative in light of its heavy fiscal costs and the already high public debt burdens in the region”.
The IMF analysis – even before the games are over and the revenues counted – may well prove to be correct. And, while all the governments had made optimistic statements about the rewards that would be reaped from CWC, they were careful to locate the benefits in the future particularly from tourism that would result from the publicity generated by television images.
In reality, tourism should not try to live off the television coverage of CWC for when people are making decisions about holidays while some might remember the spectacular images of the Caribbean, other factors such as the competitiveness of costs of accommodation and flights will play a far more important role in their holiday choice.
It may well be that, at the end of the day, the main benefit of CWC to the West Indies is that they proved they were capable of hosting it and hosting it well. There is good reason for pride in this accomplishment. | | | | Reads : 83 | | | |
|
|
