A vicious attempt to sabotage
Editorial
Kaieteur News
March 27, 2007
One of the most dangerous things is a rumour. In various parts of the world rumours have led to the deaths of many. Within recent times there was the genocide in Rwanda. Hundreds died because one man went on radio to broadcast that one group of people had slaughtered another. To this day the international community is prosecuting those who either caused or participated in the genocide.
Guyana has had its fair share of rumours. Way back in the 1960s at the height of the disturbances, rumours flew fast and furious. People were quick to report on imaginary happenings in other villages and quite often, depending on the rumour, people died. People rushed out of their homes on receiving reports that the people of one village had killed someone of another ethnic group.
No sooner had that killing taken place than another would occur in obvious retaliation. And what is shocking is that the retaliation was often more gruesome than the previous killing. It is as if those seeking retaliation want to prove that whatever is done to one group the other could do so much worse.
Yesterday there was a rumour that could have caused serious damage to the reputation of this country. Two days before the first match was to be played in Guyana someone telephoned to report that the International Cricket Council had cancelled the matches in Guyana because the National Stadium was not ready.
Earlier this year there was the fear that this might have been the case because so many things were unfinished. During a visit in November the ICC team found that the pitch and outfield were not ready as were some other aspects of the stadium.
The ICC extended the deadline and returned in February to ensure that everything would be in place. This was not the case and up to yesterday the team was still conducting a site inspection. Indeed the ICC had approved the pitch and outfield but there were some problems with aspects of seating and the approaches to the stadium.
We in Guyana were supposed to have finished the extension to the four-lane highway; we were also supposed to have completed the parking area inside the stadium. We have failed.
On Sunday we were dumping tons and tons of mud and other surfacing material to sop the water that had begun to lodge at crucial areas in the stadium compound.
Out of the blue came a report that the ICC was removing all matches from Guyana.
The rumour was that this was announced by the BBC. The news flew like wildfire and by mid-afternoon yesterday there was a telephone call from a radio station in Jamaica seeking information on the ICC decision to remove the matches.
There was one occasion when a team came to Guyana and left to play a rescheduled match in another territory. That had to do with politics. The English team had come with a player who had toured South Africa at a time when Guyana had strong views on apartheid and had actually instituted a ban on anyone touring the apartheid country.
The then Head of State, Forbes Burnham, was adamant that this player could not play cricket here because of our policy. If a Guyanese had toured South Africa, while we could not ban him we could prevent him from using any state facility.
So the Head of State said that the individual, Robin Jackman, could not play and the British left to play in Barbados.
Sir Garfield Sobers was subjected to the same stringent dictates. He had to apologise before he could play cricket here.
So, we never had another international match shifted from this venue although there was a case where rain nearly caused a shift.
We are convinced that there are people who do not want Guyana to enjoy its moment in the sun, something that hosting Cricket World Cup will allow. There were rumours about the state of readiness of some hotels and worse.
We are uncertain whether the rumour had an impact on ticket sales. Suffice it to say that while the rumour swirled, the ICC was finalising arrangements for play by installing the various pieces of broadcasting equipment, putting up the screens and just about everything else to go with the cricket.