Tony Becca ON THE BOUNDARY

WHEN CHRIS Dehring promised the world the best World Cup ever, he certainly was not thinking about great cricket being played before empty stands.

So far, however, but for a match or two, that has been the case.

Apart from some outstanding individual performances, there have been some exciting team performances on the field, and none more so than the tie between Ireland and Zimbabwe. and after South Africa were sailing along at 206 for five and needing four runs to win with five wickets in hand, the one-wicket victory by the Proteas over Sri Lanka.

As far as attendance is concerned, however, that has been disappointing - so disappointing in fact that Brian Lara, captain of the home team, has been forced to comment on it.

According to Lara, while the crowd support was quite good in Jamaica, it was embarrassing in Antigua where, on a day declared as a public holiday in support of the cricket, a crowd of less than half the capacity of the new stadium turned out to see the West Indies, the home team, against Australia, the defending champions, and where, on the reserve day and with the West Indies and Lara batting, there were only a couple thousand fans on the ground.

Embarrassing support

The crowd was so poor, and obviously it was expected to be that poor, that the temporary stands, with a reported capacity of 8,000, were closed on the second day of the match.

And as it has been throughout the tournament, it was no better against New Zealand, also at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, where there was just a spattering of people around the ground and in Guyana, where South Africa and Sri Lanka thrilled the few on hand with a nail-biting finish.

Although the number of visitors has been nowhere close to what was expected by Dehring and company, the visitors, certainly in Antigua, have matched the locals at matches - so much so that it begs the question: where have all thepeople gone?

The people have gone nowhere. They are still in Antigua, in Guyana, in St. Kitts - where tickets were given away in an effort to get people to attend matches and all around the islands.

Why then are they not at cricket - at a showpiece like the World Cup?

Like the visitors, who keep talking, and talking about it, some of them are angry that the organisers have changed their cricket - that they cannot go to the matches and drink their rum and their beer; that they cannot take their food along with them; and, that the music is not what it used to be.

According to them, and to many of the visitors who came to the Caribbean to enjoy cricket Caribbean style, the music is not such that they can dance and wine and generally enjoy themselves.

According to the visitors, they heard about cricket in the Caribbean, they saw cricket in the Caribbean on television, they saved to come and enjoy cricket in the Caribbean and, now that they are here, cricket in the Caribbean for whatever reason, is not what they expected it to be.

Here's what one Englishman said to another at the end of the first day of the West Indies/Australia match: "It is like watching cricket at Lord's. It's no bloody different."

The most important reason why the fans have stayed away, however, is the price of admission.

price of tickets

Almost everyone I have met, local and visitor alike, has complained about the price of tickets and many of them have also complained about the price of other things, including the price of a soft drink.

To them the price of a soft drink at matches is similar to the price of a soft drink at a luxury hotel.

"I tell you something," said one angry man who was present on Tuesday but vowed never to return, "All this price thing tells me they did not cater to us in the West Indies. No sir, this World Cup is for the foreigners - and they are not even here, at least not many of them."

Maybe it is too late to do something about it, but regardless of what the organisers say, the World Cup is hurting, and it is hurting, not only from the manner in which the tickets were sold to the locals, not only from the false announcements that matches were sold out, not only from the trouble, from the pushing and shoving that people have to go through now to get tickets, and not only from the fact that in terms of their music the Caribbean has been silenced, but also from the price they have to pay, or had to pay, to enter the matches.

Maybe that is really the reason why a match like the West Indies versus Australia in a World Cup match-up in a place like Antigua where a public holiday is still offered to the people to facilitate their attendance attracted so few spectators.