Barbados -- With 110 days to go from today, Nov. 20, to the next year’s main sporting event, Chris Dehring, the head honcho of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007, has identified complacency as his biggest fear.
Speaking to HBN recently at the 3W’s Oval at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, Dehring stressed that the hosting of the Cricket World Cup takes a large amount of focus and people at every level must step up to the plate.
He warned that staying focused must be the main objective at this stage, citing the example of the 2005 Football World Cup in Germany, where at this juncture, news stories about the event would not be placed on the back pages of newspapers.
“This event will impact on the people of the region whether they like it or not,” said Dehring, while emphasizing that the people of the region are the stakeholders in the World Cup and must take personal ownership of their role in the hosting of the event.
“But this can only be driven if there is a national pride by the media, government institutions, and all aspects of society,” he added.
The Cricket World Cup’s managing director estimates that over US$300,000,000 has been spent to build and develop cricket grounds across the region. He said that this money is an investment and the governments who invested the monies in their respective countries are, like all investors, looking for returns.
“The 2007 World Cup has shown that the countries of the Caribbean can work together,” said Dehring, citing the Sunset Legislation as an example. “It was a phenomenon that nine countries of the region got together and passed a common piece of legislation. When one looks at the many resolutions passed at Caricom Summits that have not been implemented, cricket has shown once more that the region can work together.”
Dehring was speaking at the start of the International Cricket Council’s final assessment tour of the Caribbean.
It is estimated that more than 100,000 fans will attend the event that runs from March 13 to April 28, 2007. The first match of the tournament will take place on Tuesday March 13 at the newly renovated Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica between the West Indies and Pakistan in Group D.
Fifty-one matches will take place over 47 days in eight countries. Almost all of the countries are building new stadiums for the event.
