Hard and soft Sports Tourism

St Vincent and the Grenadines joined the rest of the Caribbean in agreeing the hosting of the International Cricket Council’s Cricket World Cup in 2007 (CWC2007).

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) was awarded the right to hoist the CWC2007 because the ICC was completing its round of having every one of the major cricketing nations get an opportunity to host the prestigious and otherwise lucrative event.

The WICB then approached the governments of the Caribbean to support the undertaking and that seems to have resonated well with the regional Heads of Government, many of whom had absolutely no idea what they were getting into.

The regional Heads of Government were sold on the idea that hosting the CWC20007 in the Caribbean was an amazing sport tourism opportunity even though not one of them had as yet established a national sport tourism policy in their own country. They did not really understand the concept and what it means in practical terms, to say nothing of the requirements of getting a grip on how the CWC2007 was intended to be a sport tourism product.

It never occurred to any of the Heads of Government of the region to ask the leadership of the CWC how it was going to become a sport tourism product that would bring benefits to the region.

It was also unclear just what would have been the requirements of the region to realise the potential of the CWC2007 as a beneficial sport tourism product for the Caribbean as hosts.

Armed without any genuine experience in sport tourism the leadership of the region’s Cricket fraternity apparently marched headlong across the Caribbean and convinced the different governments to come on board CWC2007.

One government after another in this Caribbean of ours was led by the nose through the near-torturous process of getting the Sunset Legislation passed without once taking into consideration the implications for the culture of the peoples of the region and how it would derail the innovations of thorough enjoyment that Chikie’s Hi Fi and Gravy had brought to the game in Antigua and Barbuda several years ago, a rich legacy that has impacted the game everywhere since.

In sport cities and countries often have to bid to win the rights to host a mega event. At the time that we got the CWC2007 the Cricketing nations did not have to bid for the event. The ICC was allowing the major Cricketing nations to each have the opportunity to host the event before introducing a bidding process like most international sports federations (IF) do. This must have been a critical factor in the decidedly poor job undertaken in the Caribbean.