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The
REGION is not ready to host the Cricket World Cup in 2007.
In fact, says CONCACAF chief Austin “Jack” Warner,
who is also vice-president of FIFA, soccer’s governing
body, the event could be a communications catastrophe and
we would be better off not hosting it.
“What
we are doing is trying to be mimic men as far as cricket is
concerned, so to say India hosted, South Africa hosted and
we must host too.
“Guys,
we aren’t ready yet. I know I will get licks like hell
for that, but so what, I will take the licks,”
Warner expressed his views while in Barbados for the Digicel
Caribbean Cup Football Finals which ended Thursday, with Jamaica
beat Cuba 1-0 to take the tournament and T&T edging the
host 3-2 for the bronze medals.
“I
didn’t come here to attack cricket, but I look back at
cricket and I sometimes wonder if we are still suffering from
the legacy of colonialism,” he added.
The Caribbean Football Union’s president revealed that
only last Friday, Keith Look Loy, CONCACAF’s technical
director, left Port-of-Spain to come to Barbados for the congress
and he landed here, but his luggage was in London.
“This
can’t go on. Now what are you telling me? Would all this
be corrected in time for 2007, and if by some miracle, at
what cost?” Warner asked.
“But
it would have been better for us to skip 2007 and help to
develop a foundation of footballers through primary and secondary
schools.
“We
haven’t been able to put our house in order in terms
of communication.
In the last month, every single flight to come to these countries,
almost every one, has been delayed by two hours, sometimes
by a day,” he said.
Warner also claimed that his Caribbean Professional Football
League, which he started in the mid-1990s,folded because “we
could not depend on the vagaries of the airlines in the region”.
He said that while governments should give financial help
to cricket, there were far greater benefits supporting football.
“I
say this not facetiously; I am very serious. Any government
must give to cricket and if they believe that, of course they
have that amount of money that they can dispense with, fine.
But I don’t think if you compare cricket and football,
that it is value for money,” he said.
“It
is an obligation they have for the sport of cricket. Cricket
is a West Indian thing.
“There
is no Barbadian cricket team at the international level,”
Warner said.
“If
any flag is flown at all, you have a West Indian flag for
the Caribbean, but the flag of your country is flown always
on the field of football.”
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