The slogan, “Sports – it’s not just a game”, summarises the realisation – at least in some quarters – that sports is an integral part of the national life of every society. Sports can develop the character of the individual as well as that of the community and the nation.
It is not by chance that countries such as Russia and China, which attempted to leapfrog economic development, all introduced strong national sports programmes.
“Sport builds and nurtures the spirit of friendly competition, it provides healthy entertainment, it exercises the body, it focuses the spirit, it creates a climate of achievement and it challenges the youth in particular to higher levels of endurance and attainment.”
While sports initially was seen as a private undertaking, which was epitomised by the “amateur” traditions of cricket, in the last half a century, professional sports have moved to centre stage, and in fact is today the driving force in modern sports development.
The mantra seems to be that “all that the amateurs can achieve for sports, the professionals can do it better”. And the professionals have taken games to such a level that they have a significant direct economic impact on development of the countries as a whole.
This was brought home most forcefully in the inaugural season of the T20 Cricket Limacol Caribbean Premier League (LCPL) in 2013, especially in Guyana, with its home team the Guyana Amazon Warriors.
When the idea of a West Indian T20 Tournament was touted in 2012, most locals scoffed at it because they felt the logistical and organisational challenges, not to mention the financial demands, could not be overcome.
One local company, however, felt otherwise – NEW GPC INC. It not only purchased the local franchise (the Guyana Amazon Warriors), but actually sponsored the entire tournament, which now became the LCPL.
This decision brought home the difference between the old amateur and the new professional approach to sports. Marketing surveys were done to verify that the markets were there for the product – T20 cricket.
The challenges were identified and one by one, they were addressed – using modern project management approaches that emphasised planning, execution and feedback mechanisms.
And so when the LCPL tournament kicked off on July 30 at the Kensington Oval in Barbados, very little had been left to chance. And the “jam packed” stadiums with their enthusiastic cricketing fans in every one of the six venues – St Lucia, Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana, Antigua and Trinidad and Tpbago – testified to the success of the vision. Then there were the television broadcasts to every continent on the globe.
In the end, the Amazon Warriors and the Jamaica Tallawahs fought it out in the finals at the Queen’s Park Oval. Even though the Trinidad Red Steels had been eliminated, the “joint was jumping” like never before that night. Jamaica might have won the first trophy, but every West Indian country won numerous other prizes.
First and foremost, there was the pride inspired in the hearts of every West Indian who had been told that we could not run anything successfully. This is not an inconsequential achievement; for if a people cannot believe, they can never achieve.
West Indians now know that they can produce an event that was broadcast to every corner of the cricketing world that lived up to the very highest standards achieved elsewhere – and then some. There can be no turning back now.
Then there were the unity and amity displayed by the West Indian people that thronged the stadiums – and even among those that watched the games from their living rooms.
Whether we call this building “social capital” or “one love”, the bottom line is that people who see themselves as embarked on a common mission can achieve so much more.
More concretely, we can appreciate the economic spin-offs up close from the Guyana leg of the tournament. Every hotel in the Georgetown area was booked solid – not just the Princess Hotel next to the Guyana National Stadium, but also the Pegasus Hotel and the smaller ones.
And this was in the inaugural tournament when there had to be a host of doubters as to whether the event could be pulled off successfully. Next year, with the certainty of success, the visitors will increase in multiples.
And they will bring with them all the well-known benefits of tourism: money pumped into the economy not only in hotels, but into food providers, transportation services, sightseeing sites, and souvenirs sellers, among others.
But just as important was and will be the selling of the West Indies itself as a tourist destination. The tourism product in the West Indies has taken a beating in the last decade, because of the downturn in the traditional northern markets. But the LCPL has opened up a whole new world literally, to the local attractions. The rise of China has already sent millions of tourists abroad – mostly to the U.S.
India which is also rising has a middle class larger than the entire population of the U.S. – and they are all “cricket mad” and tuning in to LCPL’s games. We have a chance of attracting that audience both from India and from their expatriate community in the U.S.
Sports in general and professional cricket represented by the LCPL and its Guyana franchise, the Amazon Warriors, owned by the NEW GPC will assist in the development of a brighter future for Guyana.
