Warm Vincy Welcome to World Cup 2024

Some have huffed and puffed as if to “blow the house in” but the reality is that the World Cup structures are very much in place and we stand on the verge, barring final touches, of giving a hearty Vincy welcome to our leg of the International Cricket Conference’s T/20 cricket World Cup 2024.

First, our compliments for the courage shown in bidding to host a leg of the competition bearing in mind that adequate facilities were non-existent at the time, and the bitter experience of the Caribbean when last the West Indies hosted this competition, in 2007. There was the challenge of finding resources, primarily financial, organizational, technical and administrative as well.

However, the St Vincent and the Grenadines of today is not the same as that of two decades ago and our investments in human capital and in international exposure have made us much better equipped to meet such challenges.

So, we were able to go to the crease and face the pace. We have done so creditably, managing the complex processes with aplomb and proving ourselves up to the task. In particular, we must be proud of our own technical input, led by young engineers Deirdre Millington-Myers the project coordinator, Narissa Fergus and Dimitri Samuel, the last two Cuban-trained. It is not easy to host global tournaments. One must meet not only regional and international standards but also comply with the rules, regulations and operational procedures of the international organization. Sometimes these conflict with our own cultural norms and practices as we found with the 2007 World Cup. Our own people do not always appreciate this and we often have a lot of sniping, with personal or political interests at the root.

Hopefully, we are over this hump, and it can only be in our national interests to put our best foot forward. SVG is on show now, not just to the cricketing world but to hundreds of millions the world over. It can only be to our collective benefit that we “dress to impress” as the saying goes. Support our regional team but welcome all our visitors. Advertise our attractions and virtues to the world. That includes us and our behaviour. Let us stand up and be counted!