Livingstone Thompson
In just over one month from today, on March 11, to be precise, the 2007 Cricket World Cup, for which we have been preparing for well over four years, will be opened in Trelawny. This world event, which sees the final match being played in Barbados on April 28, is ninth in the series that began at Lord's in 1975.
We look forward to the brilliance and we anticipate the rush of adrenaline. It is only a pity my mother, who was an avid cricket fan, is not around to share the laughs with us. Will the record of over 350 runs, which Australia scored in the 2003 finals, be broken?
Australia are still the favourites to win, but it is not because Australia have won it three times. By that reckoning the West Indies would be the second favourite, having won it twice. Australia have been the most consistent performer in recent years and should climb to the top of the heap, though we are quite likely to have surprises. The other winners of the competition so far have been India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Wi, Aussie showdown
England has appeared in three of the eight finals played. Everyone in the West Indies would be delighted if our team were to win. It would be the sweetest thing to see a showdown with the Aussies in the finals, but by recent performances that is looking quite unlikely, to say the least.
When we consider the many millions who will be tuned in, especially to the critical matches and the finals, whether via television, radio, iPod or Internet, the numbers and the associated revenues are mind-boggling.
In 2003, over 600,000 attended the 52 matches that were played between the 14 teams. There are 16 teams in this competition, and the International Cricket Council (ICC) expects that this event will be the biggest ever. Indeed, the sizes for the competitions are ever increasing and the broadcast rights for the next two (2011 and 2015), at least, have been sold already.
So as world attention is focused on the region for those 47 days, there will be much to see, learn and earn. However, we are just about out of time to make any critical preparation that would add any meaningful value. What's done is done! The final ball is being delivered. We hope that everything will go well, or else dawg nyam wi suppa.
Ticket sales
The only problem though, is that the event is so beyond the ordinary - the ordinary cricket lover - that I am not sure how many of us will be able to get into the different ovals. If the suggestions on the ICC website are correct, they are now in the final phase of ticket sales, which means premium prices will have to be paid at this point.
The prices, which are being offered by one ticketing company, illustrate the beyond-the-ordinariness of this event. For the opening ceremony it will cost a mere €125, which coverts to J$10,725 at today's exchange rate.
The cheapest tickets remaining are those for the matches between Scotland and the Netherlands, which will be played in St, Kitts/Nevis and New Zealand and Canada, which will be played in St. Lucia. Tickets for both these matches, to be played on March 22, will fetch a mere J$5,480. The cheapest ticket being offered by this company for the West Indies vs Pakistan match on March 13 is J$16,302.
Those who are more able enter the grandstand will do so for a mere J$21,450. Happily, the asking price for the WI vs Zimbabwe on March 19 amounts to only J$8,075. However, unless the ordinary cricket lover takes out a mortgage, he or she will have to settle for watching the final match on TV. The prices being asked to enter Kensington Oval on April 28 range from J$75,668, that is, seventy-five thousand and mash at the lower end, to J$100,815; that is over one hundred thousand for the grandstand!
These prices seemed too unbelievable to be real, so I decided to check the ICC website and registered, as if I was going to buy a ticket. I tried to get a ticket for the Castries and Anse La Raye Stands for the semi-final on Aril 25. Most were sold out, but I could get one for US$130. The cheapest tickets being sold for that same match by the ticketing company I have been looking at was US$190. So, although I could get the ticket for US$60 cheaper directly from the ICC, I felt that at US$130 the price was still beyond the ordinary cricket lover.
Television coverage
Having gasped at the prices for a while, I concluded that it was better to watch the matches on TV anyway. Why would someone want travel to Barbados to brave the crowds for J$100,000 when all the action can be seen on TV?
I shall therefore use the occasion of the matches to go down memory lane reflecting on my prowess - cricketing prowess, of course! Manchester High School cricket team, many moons ago, naturally; Mona's winning cricket team in the inter-campus games played in Barbados 1980, or was it 1982?; inter-hall matches at UWI; the glorious finals of the Leinster Middle Cup in Ireland in 2000. In all these I was actually a player. I have some cricketing pedigree after all. I can do without the crowds and the adrenaline rush. In any case, at those prices, the tickets are not for the ordinary me.
Livingstone Thompson is a Jamaican theologian working in Ireland.
