Some say it’s a colossal waste of money.

But the Jamaican Government counters that the hosting of ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 is a visionary project that fits neatly into the long-term drive to lift Jamaica and the Caribbean Community (Caricom) out of poverty and underdevelopment.

It’s all a matter of playing the cards right, argues Senator Delano Franklyn, state minister for foreign affairs and foreign trade. He has served in recent months as the Government’s point man on CWC 2007 – overseeing the activities of public sector agencies preparing for and seeking to benefit from a project that is routinely described as the largest ever jointly undertaken by the English-speaking Caribbean.

“It will be up to the respective governments of Caricom and up to Caricom as a central body and organisation to ensure that we maximise the benefits resulting from hosting World Cup 2007,” Franklyn told the Sunday Observer in an interview.

“That is why not just the Jamaican Government but the agencies of government and the private sector must ensure that they are reading from the very same script in terms of drawing from CWC 2007 in aid of Jamaica’s national development,” he added.

While the pluses are seen by Franklyn as multi-faceted, running the gamut from economic opportunities through improved infrastructure, security and health systems to greater understanding and trust among regional integration partners, he identifies the Caribbean’s lead industry, tourism, as an easy-to- see beneficiary.

Franklyn marvels at what he perceives to be the shortsightedness of critics in missing the “immense value” in terms of the marketing of Jamaica’s multi-billion dollar tourism that will flow from the World Cup being televised to a worldwide audience.

He points to the World Cup opening ceremony – an elaborate cultural extravaganza showcasing Jamaica and the wider Caribbean – which takes place next Sunday, March 11, at the brand new Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium in north western Jamaica, as a case in point.

“It will be beamed to a television audience of just under two billion people. This is in a context where of all that we are spending we have not put one cent on the table for broadcasting rights,” said Franklyn.

“But yet, the country will be promoted and marketed to some two billion people across the world at a value of US$100 million or J$6.7 billion.

“On the one hand you have persons like (Opposition Leader) Mr Golding, who would clamour on a year-to-year basis that much more money is needed to be allocated to the Jamaica Tourist Board to market Jamaica, particularly when it is the tourist season.

Now, here you have a situation where we are not putting up one cent for broadcasting rights, but as a result of hosting World Cup 2007 we are getting back almost what we are spending in terms of marketing. Is Mr Golding saying to us that we ought not to be benefiting in this way in terms of marketing of Jamaica when tourism

is central to Jamaica’s national development?”

asked Franklyn.

Caribbean governments are spending in excess of US$400 million to host the World Cup, which formally begins on Sunday with the opening in Trelawny, and ends on April 28 with the final at the Kensington Oval in Barbados. Fifty-one World Cup games, involving 16 nations, are to be played in nine Caribbean countries. The warm-up phase of the tournament actually begins tomorrow with four games across the region, including West Indies vs Kenya at the Trelawny Stadium.

The Jamaican Government is spending in excess of J$8 billion or well in excess of US$100 million on the World Cup. The bulk of the spending in Jamaica has gone to stadium construction. More than US$60 million – in excess of US$30 million apiece – has gone to construction of the Trelawny facility and on a remake of Jamaica’s more than 100-year-old headquarters of cricket, Sabina Park on South Camp Road in downtown Kingston. The Jamaican Government has also spent heavily on the improvement of airports, roads, health and security systems, beautification programmes, etc.

In terms of actual events, Jamaica will host four warm-up games involving West Indies, Kenya, India and the Netherlands from March 5-9 at the Trelawny Stadium; the opening ceremony on March 11; six first-round World Cup games, involving West Indies, Pakistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe March 13-23 and one semi-final on April 24.

World Cup organisers say they expect on or around 100,000 visitors region-wide specifically for the World Cup. Jamaica is projecting 13,000-15,000 visitors for the tournament.

The obvious marketing and exposure benefits from global television apart, Franklyn said the World Cup has provided niche opportunities in the leisure industry that did not exist before in an organised way.

One is a ‘bed and breakfast programme’, that allows locals to stay in residential homes for much less than would be asked of them at hotels and villas.

“It’s a new area, a pioneering area for our tourism product,” said Franklyn. “We have had some 500-plus applications from persons who wish to make their places available. We have to go through a process, these are places that have to be examined, to make sure that infrastructure is up to necessary requirements, the police also have to check them out from a security perspective. It’s a new culture that we will have to get used to and which we will want to grow in the interest of the national economy,” said Franklyn.

Inevitably, cricket has led to non-traditional markets. India, among the world’s largest and fastest growing economies, will be paying close attention to Jamaica over the next week because of its team’s first-round games here. As a result, Jamaica’s tourism leaders, in collaboration with the Local Organising Committee, have targeted the Asian giant in recent months.

Prosperous Ireland, another non-traditional market, has been similarly targeted with spectacular results. More than 1,000 Irish visitors – most to be based in Ocho Rios – are now expected to support their team in the first round

of competition.

The nurturing and cultivation of such tourism niches will be central to the CWC legacy programme from 2007-2012 to be driven by the Government’s investment promotions agency, JAMPRO, said Franklyn.

Another such niche is Sports Tourism, which Franklyn believes will get an enormous push start from the new stadium in Trelawny. Much remains to be worked out regarding the overall plan and management of the facility, which can accommodate 25,000 – including temporary seating. The details, said Franklyn, will be unveiled by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller at some point soon.

“One of the niche areas and legacy aspects of CWC 2007 is to solidify the visionary work in developing sports tourism,” he argued. “You can’t do so by focusing only on the Corporate Area (Kingston and St Andrew). You must do so by focusing on the entire country, including western Jamaica.

“Tourism brought in some three million visitors last year. It is something that we must develop and grow as best we can and we are required to constantly find new areas which will appeal to people who are prepared to visit Jamaica,” the state minister suggested.

“Sports tourism is one such. I have a difficulty when I hear views being expressed that we ought not to have built that multi-purpose facility in Trelawny. It will benefit St Ann, Trelawny, St James, Westmoreland, Hanover, St Elizabeth – the entire western Jamaica.”

Franklyn added: “Now, it will have to be dovetailed into the tourism market, into entertainment and community-based activities that side of the world.”

Crucially, he believes, a “residential component” will be needed at the Trelawny Stadium to maximise benefits.

“That residential component naturally suggests itself because if you are going to market it and manage it properly you need to have teams staying there, just as with any multi-purpose facility anywhere outside of the Caribbean…”

Franklyn visualises similar sports tourism development prospects at Sabina Park, “dovetailed” to the planned restoration of downtown Kingston.

He emphasised that there will have to be a change in approach to the usage of the historic ground, which is the home of Kingston Cricket Club and which commands international recognition and acclaim.

“The perception of Sabina Park being an exclusive entity .( has to change),” said Franklyn. “There must be a buy-in by the community downtown and around Sabina Park. The (method) is difficult now to think through, but it is something that we must give some amount of attention to,” he suggested.

Franklyn argued that criticism of the Government’s spending on a range of areas outside of stadium development is misplaced and unfair, given that over time it would have had to take place in any case for the greater good of the populace.

“These are things which the Government and indeed any government would have been required to do over a period of time. The only difference is that in preparing for the World Cup we had to bring forward a number of things,” he admitted.

And while critics – not least Golding – have argued that World Cup funding would have been better spent on the embattled health sector, Franklyn noted that health will benefit immediately as a direct result of the tournament.

The recent arrival of new ambulances and the upgrade of hospitals underlined the point, he said.

“Some 40 ambulances are in place, some seven hospitals will be given specific focus, so we are meeting two requirements, that of World Cup and also in the long period of time these are things which poor people, ordinary people, rich people will be able to benefit from,” he said.

Likewise, road and other basic infrastructure improvement and beautification programmes could only benefit the country over the longer term.

“Everyone of us must ensure that we do everything to keep Jamaica as beautiful as we can,” said Franklyn. “It is something which we have been clamouring for, for quite sometime now. It is true that we started a little bit late but now that the work is on, I hear some people questioning what is being spent to beautify the country.

You can’t have it both ways. You can’t be saying on the one hand that Jamaica needs to be as clean as a whistle for the people here in Jamaica, for the people coming from outside, and on the other hand when work is taking place and you are required to spend you are being criticised for spending.”

Similarly, projects to correct sewage disposal on and around South Camp Road and to speed up work on sections of the North Coast Highway flowed immediately to the benefit of society.

The challenge for the Government and all Jamaicans, Franklyn believes, will be to ensure that projects, such as beautification, continue with the same diligence once the World Cup is over, given that “we have a cultural problem, almost, of stopping and starting in areas such as beautification”.

A legacy that would not have been planned for when the World Cup in the Caribbean was first conceived more than a decade ago is an improved culture of security in the post-9/11 world. The reality of the World Cup has ensured that with the help of Britain and the USA, the Jamaican police force is now in touch with the latest security training, systems and methodology.

Critically also, the World Cup, which is being held “in nine countries” but which, for the purposes of the tournament must work “as one”, has brought the region closer together at the institutional level.

Franklyn noted that in the health and security sectors “our representatives have had the opportunity of engaging their colleagues from right across the Caribbean and it is not only a question of getting their countries ready but being able to work as a body”.

As a result of that type of co-operation and collaboration, a Doping Co-ordinating Centre has been set up in Barbados. “Dope testing is a pioneering area in the Caribbean, but it is an aspect of sports and international sports which we cannot ignore,” he said.

As a result of the World Cup, said Franklyn, the Caribbean is now “far more advanced” in insulating itself from any kind of terrorist activity or problems of a security nature.

“We are in a better position to manage a crisis if it were to arise,” the junior minister said.

“Also,” said he, “we are in a better position now that we are testing the Caribbean as a single domestic space. I believe this will assist the leadership of Caricom to determine when we will be able to implement this kind of measure in a permanent way.

The introduction of a single domestic space was not easy, .once you have entered the space and have been given a visa, what is expected is that you move from one territory to the next without having to apply for another visa.

“It will require a lot of work to make this a permanent situation, but surely, having tested it and having tried it, it will give the leaders a better platform to analyse what we will be able to do from here on.”