The Editor, Sir;

As the West Indies bows out most unceremoniously from the ongoing International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy tournament in South Africa, I wish to remind Jamaicans that our region will once again host an international cricket tournament next year, the ICC 2010 World Twenty20, set to launch in Barbados on October 31.

As it turns out, based on a Cricinfo.com November 29, 2008, website release, Jamaica did not even submit a bid to be a host island for any of those games for the World T20 in 2010! A subsequent release on July 5, 2009, confirmed the host territories: Guyana, St Lucia and St Kitts, with the final in Barbados.

How could this be? For all our talk about sports tourism (from Carole Beckford's weekly column in Hospitality Jamaica, to Chris Dehring and the Minister of Tourism Ed Bartlett), and using these facilities for future events, how have we let this grand opportunity pass us by? For T20 cricket is yet the most exciting form of the game, with television and spectator viewership in the hundreds of millions.

Future tournaments

We were fooled into thinking that the purpose of Jamaica refurbishing Sabina Park and building the Trelawny multi-purpose sports facility for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 was to be able to have the capacity to host such future tournaments as this was, as Chris Dehring described it, "the legacy of ICC CWC 2007!", in his capacity as CEO of ICC CWC 2007.

Alas! I am happy though, as it will cost us nothing in not hosting. The true "legacy" for Jamaica, as it has turned out, has been bills from the hosting of the last World Cup, which continue to accrue against us.

First, there were reports of the Local Organising Committee's allegedly closing up shop before repaying loans of millions of US dollars. Then Ashtrom's additional submission for J$1.4 billion for work on Sabina. All of which the Jamaican taxpayer will have to dig into his pocket to find.

Another facet of the "legacy", has been the fact that these stadia will remain vacant for yet another year, and possibly for years to come, as contrary to popular thinking, we can't build our nation through sports.

Maybe our leaders will try to get us a game for the Champions Trophy in 2011, "To make us proud"! God forbid!

I am, etc.,

KAVON FIENNES

kfiennes@gmail.com

Ingleside, Mandeville, Manchester