Tuesday, April 19, 2005

When things get rough, wear a cup...

As the four-way Windies Cricket sponsorship scrap winds down and the boys get back to the business of trying to play like the first class cricketers they are, the last thing us Windies cricket fans need is more bad news.


Photo by Touchline/Getty Images


Now, I've taken a fair share of smack from various persons for my harsh criticisms of the cavalier manner in which the Caribbean got involved in the bid to host Cricket World Cup 2007. Words like bitchy, traitorous and pessimistic have been bandied about. Unfortunately, my critics were wrong. For an in-depth analysis of this tragedy in the making, read Azad Hosein's "Trouble Ahead!".

According to Hosein's calculations the eight territories tipped to play host; Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, Jamaica, Guyana, Grenada and Trinidad & Tobago; will have to raise US$1billion in order to mount the competition. Thus far, there seems to be no money and few plans but scads of overweening confidence.

And so, the International Cricket Council's naming of South Africa as replacement host, in the increasingly likely event that we can't pull off the 2007 games, seems of more ominous import than the mere prudent planning it surely is.

5 Ninjas, 1 Kitten and a Fifth of Vodka!