BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The Mia Mottley-led government has identified the “resurgence of cricket in Barbados” as the number one legacy benefit to be derived from the country’s hosting of the T20 World Cup in June.
Chairman of Barbados’ National Organising Committe for the T20 World Cup, Ambassador NoelContending that much of Barbados’ national development over the years has been underpinned by cricket, chairman of the National Organising Committee, Ambassador Noel Lynch told a media conference here this week that government’s goal was to ensure the June 1-29 showpiece captured and further advanced this heritage.
Kensington Oval here is poised to host nine games – five group stage fixtures, three Super Eight second stage matches and the grand final.
“The legacy of this World Cup will involve a number of variables in a very complex equation but one thing that is important, is you can benefit from the World Cup in tourism and hospitality, investment, infrastructure security, administration, technology – you can benefit from it,” said Lynch.
“But what must be the greatest legacy of this World Cup in our opinion – in Mia Mottley and her cabinet’s opinion – is there must be a resurgence of cricket in Barbados. That must be the legacy of this World Cup.”
He continued: “The socio-cultural development of Barbados was based on cricket – cricket is at the core of everything that we do and everything that we’ve ever excelled in in this country and that’s why Mia Mottley in her wisdom said there must be a resurgence of cricket.”
“Cricket was the basis and the cradle for ensuring that we had other greats in other parts of our development … therefore you will see faces and images of people that are greats from Barbados in other areas of development.
“But understand that cricket is at the core of our national development and that’s why we’re using this platform in order to raise them up.”
As such, Lynch said at the centre of NOC’s programme during the T20 World Cup would be the promoting of former West Indies players through a ‘Greatness Campaign’, which would also involve prominent figures from other areas of development.
Any resurgence of cricket, Lynch argued, needed the involvement of these “legends and icons of cricket” who through their achievements had established a template of excellence for the country.
“We are staring down the barrel of a gun in relation to how our people see cricket, particularly our young people,” said Lynch, who until earlier this year served as Barbados’ Ambassador to the United States and Organisation of American States (OAS).
“We are in danger of a generation of people not knowing who the Right Excellent Sir Garfield Sobers is and that would be, in my opinion, one of the greatest travesties of our social and economic development.
“Gary Sobers is not about playing cricket alone, it is about somebody coming from this 166-square-mile rock that can be the greatest in the world at any endeavour.
“Therefore, there must be a resurgence of cricket based on exposing our legends and our icons so that Barbadians know how they are and what they have contributed individually and collectively to our development.”
Lynch, also a former cabinet minister, said the role of the NOC would be to ensure that the country and its people derived maximum benefit from staging of the showpiece, while avoiding the pitfalls of previous tournaments.
“Our aspect in the National Organising Committee is to prepare Barbados overall in a holistic way for the hosting of the World Cup to ensure that Barbados can exact the optimum benefit at every level from the hosting of the event,” he explained.
“It means ultimately that if a Barbadian citizen does not feel that he or she is exacting some benefit, they go away with a bad taste in their mouths and that is what happened after the 2007 World Cup, and that’s what happened in some measure after the 2010 World Cup in which we hosted the finals.
“Prime Minister Mottley is intent on ensuring that that not be the legacy of this World Cup and the word that I want everyone to focus on is legacy.
“What we’re going to ensure that happens is that if you’re a Barbadian and you’re frontline in the actions leading up to this World Cup, that you can exact a benefit.
“If you’re not frontline in it, we want to ensure you receive a legacy benefit coming out of the World Cup and therefore, the concept of legacy and making Barbados ready involves a number of activities.”
The NOC comprises major stakeholders from the public sector, private sector and civil society.
