There are 43 days to go before the opening ceremony of the world cup of cricket on March 11. On Thursday, February 1, Cable and Wireless, a major sponsor, will launch its national World Cup campaign. The World Cup will be the largest sporting event ever held in the Caribbean and is to be seen by two billion to three billion people. The first four teams will arrive in Jamaica on March 1, and by March 10, all 16 teams will be here for the opening ceremonies.

Jamaica will host the largest number of official events during the tournament, including the opening ceremony and a semi-final. Robert Bryan, executive director of Jamaica's organising committee, says that Sabina Park and the Trelawny multi-purpose stadium are ready.

Jamaica launched the official theme song for its leg of the world cup last week. The song, 'Come to Jamaica', was produced and arranged by Richie Stephens. The Local Organising Committee (LOC) also launched a World cup pin with the Jamaican flag and the ICC World Cup cricket logo. The mood is being set for what we hope will be a world-class hosting of the tournament.

STANDARDS

Obviously, the World Cup will be putting world-class cricketers on show. Some of the greatest legends in cricket history, like Lara, Tendulkar, Ponting, Warne, and Muralitharan, will be leading the pack.

Can we in the Caribbean put on a world-class show? The signs are encouraging. Cable and Wireless promises to "leverage its world-class technologies and services to ensure that the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 is truly a showpiece for the people of the Caribbean." It will provide the communications infrastructure to ensure a 'flawless tournament'.

The LOC will say more about the opening ceremony in the coming week, but it has hired consultants who have worked with the Olympic Games and the American Super Bowl to put on a high energy cultural show to make the opening ceremony at the Trelawny stadium one of the best, if not the best, in the history of the World Cup.

Next week, the Nation Publishing Company Limited in Barbados will put out a 132 page ICC Official Souvenir Guide of venues, countries, players and the Caribbean's rich cricketing culture. The ICC's commercial manager was so pleased with what has been produced that he applauded the fact that it was "born and bred in the Caribbean and is a testament to the world-class ability and talent in the region."

Gene Hills, an Australian assistant coach who was in the region looking over some venues in the eastern Caribbean where Australia will be playing, was very positive about what he saw. He said the venues rivalled or even bettered some of what Australia had to offer and will take back the message that "the West Indies as a whole will have a fantastic World Cup." The final inspection of venues by the ICC will be made in the coming week, so we will have an overall and official update of progress then.

Robert Bryan says that there are too kinds of attitudes evident towards the World Cup. One is the 'Tear Jamaica apart' attitude. The other is the 'Take Jamaica to heart' attitude. The former is the cynical attitude that we can do nothing right. Delroy Chuck's article last Wednesday is symptomatic of this. I'm sure it is not the JLP's attitude. The evidence in fact shows that we have successfully put on international athletics, cricket, soccer, netball and golf events, business conventions and fairs, political summits, and music festivals, and Robert Bryan himself is very experienced at putting these things on. Granted, the World Cup is a bigger affair but the ICC selected the Caribbean as hosts because it has the confidence that we can meet world-class standards, and why shouldn't we have the same confidence in ourselves?

This attitude is also a self-serving one. Hotels, commercial interests and media organisations that want everything to be arranged for their profit and exposure turn against what they call wrong-headed politicians and bureaucracy, as with the sunshine legislation and CARICOM Special Visa, if their special interests are not put first.

Prominence is too often given to those who expect to get only for themselves with little interest in the more generalised and long-term benefits for the region. But they miss the point. Cricket is our culture and culture belongs to the people. It cannot be owned by any sector and is not there for mere commercial profit. Cricket celebrates human excellence in skill, teamwork, courage, leadership, and conduct, values greater to a country than the profits of a few.

'Take Jamaica to heart' is an attitude that, according to Bryan, celebrates the Caribbean's creative and distinct civilisation and the people and personalities that brand the region as a unique place. These are the people in politics, business, sports, culture, and entertainment who have branded the region internationally. The list is growing every day. For Jamaica alone we can add Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson, sportsman and sportswoman of the world for 2006. For the third consecutive year a Bob Marley song will be included in the music hall of fame, but Desmond Dekker will have his song, 'Israelites', included too. It is from these people that we take heart and lift ourselves. Money might be short and might never get to some people but inspiration is free, unlimited and available to every boy and girl.

TWO JAMAICAS

Sometimes people in the same sector might represent these two attitudes, attitudes of two Jamaicas. The Custos of Trelawny and the Trelawny Chamber of Commerce have taken a very different attitude towards the World Cup than their Kingston-based counterparts. The JCC cries gloom and doom that what we spend won't be recouped by business, and the KSAC has admitted its failure to fix up downtown Kingston for the tournament.

The Trelawny associations distance themselves from their Kingston counterparts to say they and Trelawny diaspora associations intend to use the World Cup to promote tourism and culture and bring greater prosperity to the parish. They will not sit back and wait on the Government to do everything. Their celebrations will emphasise the parish's culture, food, tourism, and investment potential. One of the main reasons why the Trelawny stadium was built was to do just this - kick-start the potential of the parish.

From at least February 2006, Bryan's Local Organising Committee, the Jamaica Business Development Centre and JAMPRO have been holding sensitisation meetings in western Jamaica to make business people, including those in small businesses such as crafts, apparel, fashion and food, aware of the potential opportunities that they can take advantage of. The JCC is mistaken to believe that Jamaica, or any host country, expects or could ever expect to profit within the actual two-month period of a Cricket World Cup. JAMPRO has positioned itself to ensure that the society benefits over the long term from the legacy of the event.

Entrepreneurs like Sonya Dunstan, whose Montego Bay business was featured in The Gleaner two weeks ago, is one of those persons who represent this other Jamaica where new, small, and internationally-minded businesspersons work to make good of opportunities in a number of markets for Jamaican food. People like Dunstan and the Trelawny leaders represent Jamaica's future.

Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, Mona, UWI. Email: Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm