Bryan

Barbara Ellington, Lifestyle Editor

Heading the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for Jamaica's participation in the recently concluded International Cricket Council Cricket World Cup (ICC-CWC) was not a difficult task for Social Development Commission head, Robert Bryan. But there were challenges, and the years of experience gained from personal and other assignments served him well.

The challenges, Bryan told The Sunday Gleaner in an exclusive interview, resulted because the West Indian community did not arrive at a consensus as to why we were hosting the event, while trying to operate within the context of a regional framework among a people who were still trying to understand regionalism.

So, were there errors in the process? "It was a significant learning experience," said Bryan from an office he will occupy until June 30. The desks and tables bear price tags - a tangible sign that many non-fixed assets used to stage the US$150 million event are being sold to recoup losses. "Upon reflection," he continued, "a number of issues would have been approached differently." But, Bryan is quick to point out that he came to the organisation mid-way through the four-year process.

"I joined the LOC in July 2005, almost half-way into it. To put together a national organisation for such a big event, I would have wanted more time to mould the team, to create a blue-chip company in a small time frame and then dismantle it in order to deliver at the standards required for the event," he told The Sunday Gleaner.

Not catastrophic

But it was not catastrophic. There were over 22 functional areas and a huge staff in a structure covering both ends of the island. Venue construction and event planning were core functions, all lasting roughly four years. "When we were asked to take over the opening ceremony late in theprocess, that also added a whole humongous challenge," Bryan recalled.

There were personal challenges too, such as a family that got used to not seeing him and inter-intra-regional travel that was so much, he has lost count of the trips. In assessing his overall performance, Bryan said he thought he did pretty well. "Judging from public reaction and the owners' assessment, Jamaica did well. Most Jamaicans were happy with all the things many had feared would not go smoothly. The opening ceremony stands out as being first class."

Correct step

And, speaking of the region, should the Caribbean have taken on the CWC? Bryan thinks we took the correct step in bidding, since we exist in a world where sport tourism is big and we have to be involved. "Even when you contemplate a loss (gate receipts), you have to be far more disaggregating than that when it comes to hosting world events. We were correct, but having bid for it, we dropped the ball in our regional approach to its implementation. We created a structure that created a competition among sister states, rather than acting cohesively; and there was a clear weakness in not marketing the event as one solid programme for the region. It could only have been implemented successfully as a region.

Each country ended up trying to market a little piece of a big event, is the view held by Bryan and no one wanted to give up their share of the tourism product. That was a major weakness, he stressed. It would have been successfully done as a region. But, he was quick to note that the approach reflected where we are as a region. "We are still competing entities," he said.

Pockets of population

He said also, we suffered because the decision regarding where some matches were held was not made with consideration of where the larger pockets of the region's population centres were. So, some matches would have been better played elsewhere. "The Super Eights should have been played where we had bigger population centres, even with the issue of prices."

Headded that pricing of tickets was also an issue, but a more fundamental error was the assumption that the event would have been driven by tourist dollars and hosts of visitors filling the stadia at all stages. That was fed by our (the region's) own independence.

With an event spread over nine countries, the full impact was only understood during and after. There are not usually many people at preliminary matches, plus it lasted 59 days. There was no attention paid to the structure of the event to understand it and make different choices, Bryan said upon reflection.

Bad deal

"Jamaica had a bad deal in respect of warm-up matches. Again, out of inexperience, we took on the concept that these were part of the event and committed resources to building facilities for them across the region. The standards in the Host Venue Agreement (HVA) for these were out of keeping with what a warm-up match is. Those could have been relaxed because many of these matches were not even broadcast!"

Did the governments of the region enter the agreement with the ICC-CWC with full knowledge and understanding of what the implications were? "The terms were known, but to say they were understood, given the lack of experience in hosting events, is another matter," Bryan said.

In his view, the HVA was a very bad one, it was one-sided and the region was caught in a quarrel with the ICC and its commercial rights holders so that our tourist boards were interpreted as a third-party commercial entity. (They could not use the logo to market the event.) "We should have collectively resisted it," he feels.

As for whether in the long run Jamaica's investment was worth it, Mr. Bryan said that the total allocated by the Government was US$105 million: $63 million for stadia; $17 million for the event; $25 million into upgrading roads, hospitals and other infrastructure. Cricket is over and the assets are still there.

"It is a national investment. You have to compare the $17 million to the potential returns from direct ticket salesand any other revenue from what people spent on the event. I am not sure what the numbers will be, but there could be a gap of about US$5 million.

"This does not include the amount of exposure we received internationally. The figures are awaiting a final return on tickets. Sale of assets is now taking place and some of the money is being recovered from that. I think we focused too much on the cricket rather than on the opportunity to position ourselves when the world was watching. We did not understand that," he said.

Was there a time he felt we would not be ready for the opening? Bryan concurs. He pointed to the cement crisis, but based on our usual pace of doing things, he thought we would be ready but running around at the last minute. However, if asked to do something of this magnitude again, having gained the experience, he said he would.

Will there be non-cricket activities at Sabina? Bryan noted that it's a modern facility with many possibilities. "The directors are looking at ways to diversify what is done there. Sabina Park needs lights to make it more flexible. But there is a timetable in place for the use of both facilities," he said.

Bryan's most memorable and pleasant experience of the event was seeing the reaction and pride in Jamaicans at the opening ceremony. "That was the highlight for me, because I have always felt we doubt ourselves too much as a people and focus on why things won't work rather than the positive."

Making up for a bad incident

The Bob Woolmer tragedy was an external, though no less tragic event. It caused him to wonder why some wanted to take responsibility for it. On the other hand, a good performance by the West Indies team would have made up for that bad incident.

His advice to event planners undertaking assignments of this magnitude is to recognise that we have a huge pool of Jamaican professionals at all levels here capable of putting them together. "Medical, security, transport volunteers, all of these sectors performed excellently," he said. These events require teamwork and we must deliver one that will function at the highest level."

Second, there must be a mechanism to coordinate and take responsibility for things to avoid confusion.

Come Wednesday, Bryan will present his final report to the LOC board.