THE 2007 Cricket World Cup will attract visitors, the likes of which have never been seen in any concentrated time period, spending more money than the current tourist and more time.

This assurance was given by Chief Executive Officer 2007 Cricket World Cup, Chris Dehring, at the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) annual awards ceremony, held at the Umana Yana on Friday night.

Dehring stated that the traffic would not be limited by the size of our stadiums. Referring to the 1999 final, held at Lord’s when Australia played Pakistan, he said of particular interest was not the 15 000 or so Pakistanis inside the ground, it was the 10 000 Pakistanis outside the venue who couldn’t get a ticket, but wanted to be there anyway in the event Pakistan won.

Dehring said when the match was over, “here you had 25 000 Pakistanis and maybe another 15 000 Australians all dressed up and nowhere to go. Because the authorities then thought of the World Cup final as a cricket match. And when the match was over, they expected everyone to go home. But that is not the World Cup.”

According to Dehring, the World Cup is an opportunity to celebrate the game and its multiplicity of constituents. “The event in 2007 will not make that mistake and non-cricket events must be big and spectacular as the cricket matches. We know how to entertain in the Caribbean and the world must know it when the 2007 event is over.”

Dehring also disclosed that the World Cup Master Plan has just been approved by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and will begin to be rolled out in earnest this month. He said a fundamental pillar of the plan is to maintain the distinctive element of competition between the potential venues in the Caribbean. And in that regard, all grounds are equal.

The investment banker pointed out that to assist the WICB with assessing venues for the allocation of matches, professional venue development master planners will be contracted as part of a Venue Assessment Team to do an assessment of the venues on offer, as put forward by countries interested in hosting matches.

DIRECTOR of Sport, Neil Kumar, hands over the Most Improved Player Trophy to Lennox Cush’s sister.
“The definition of ‘venue’ in this case is the country or city and it is important to understand that all the facilities of the ‘venue’ will need to be assessed: the airport and marine facilities, the hotel and other types of accommodation, the transportation and of course the cricket stadium,” Dehring argued.

Dehring admitted that generally the cricket stadiums in the Caribbean are in poor shape. “We average around 15 000 in minimal quality seating capacity versus and average 30 000 high quality seating which will be required to host World Cup 2007. Old stadiums need to be refurbished; new stadiums need to be built.

“But we don’t need permanent seating of that capacity. Technology has advanced to such an extent that many of the stadiums you see at Olympic Games for instance are temporary stadiums. We don’t want to be left with the proverbial ‘white elephants’ when the World Cup is over. Yes we would love to have 40 000 or 50 000 seat stadium for the final, but after the World Cup, we don’t need such capacity. Work on our stadiums is needed but we must be smart about it and not waste resources, Dehring warned.

Touching on Bourda, Dehring pointed out that this is a great opportunity to either refurbish the venue or even build a new facility to put Guyana in the front line for the World Cup and major Test series matches thereafter.

Dehring told the audience, which included several ministers of the Guyana government, executives of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), members of the diplomatic corps and awardees, that accommodation in Guyana would be an obvious challenge. “But it is a challenge for all other countries in the region, so there is no disadvantage there. If we promote and run this event right, we will have upwards of 100 000 visiting supporters to the region. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of Caribbean visitors to the venue where the West Indies are playing.”

Dehring alluded to the fact that there are just about 40 000 hotel rooms in the entire English-speaking Caribbean. That means, he said, if we were able to take all the hotel rooms in the entire Caribbean and put them here in Georgetown, Guyana would still be a stretch to host a hypothetical game between England and India. “We all know of the English love of following their team here in the Caribbean. We can multiply that demand tenfold for the World Cup. India is a sleeping giant in this regard.

“With the proximity of North America and the 10 million or so residents from the sub-continent, this sleeping giant is likely to be fully awake. So too the expatriate populations of Australians, South Africans, etc. etc.”

Dehring however pointed out that with good planning and promotion, “we will overrun with tourists. So where will we put them? In Olympic Games and Football World Cups, that’s where the entrepreneurs come to the rescue, registering and organising bed and breakfast accommodations, expanding the definition of accommodations to every household that has a spare bedroom.

“Cruise ships and other similar offshore accommodations are leased and offered as floating hotels.