Noted Barbadian sports administrator and former Minister of Tourism Mr Noel Lynch is expected to give up his rather desirable diplomatic posting in Washington as Ambassador to the United States.
That enviable diplomatic post will go to longstanding broadcaster and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Barbados National Oil Company Limited Vic Fernandes.
All this comes as Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced the introduction of a new minister, Chad Blackman, and the return of Marsha Caddle to the Cabinet following the resignation of the Minister in the Ministry of Health Dr Sonia Browne.
Mr Lynch, viewed as a dynamic figure, will be leading Barbados’ charge as he leads the coordination of the 2024 International Cricket Council (ICC) T20 World Cup. With just six months to go before the international event is staged in the Caribbean, some observers suggest the window is woefully short to undertake all that is necessary to make the event inclusive and beneficial to average citizens.
Already, the country is committed to a $50 million loan from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to upgrade and maintain the iconic Kensington Oval. It resulted from a deal signed last November at the second AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum which was staged in Georgetown, Guyana.
The agreement, which was signed on behalf of Kensington Oval Management Inc. is a term loan facility that will be used to rehabilitate and maintain the sports infrastructure required for the hosting of the ICC T20 World Cup in June.
The country is encouraged that we are now in a position to easily secure loan financing; however, the worry about our ability to repay the increasing level of foreign debt is palpable.
We are an extremely proud cricketing nation with arguably more international cricketing greats and legends per capita than any other cricket-playing nation in the world.
There is much sentimental attachment to the gentleman’s game for several reasons. It can also be reasonably argued that for Barbados, the game of cricket represents the biggest sports-related economic driver.
The throngs of British and Indian fans who follow their teams on tours to the island create significant economic activity through spending. More important, that spending finds its way to average Barbadians via food vendors, owners of smaller accommodations, craft vendors, restaurant owners, taxi drivers, and others.
With the hosting of the ICC T-20 global tournament, Barbados is expected to spend significant sums in the preparation process. Ironically, some of the very issues that Barbadians have been complaining about will have to be addressed if we are to put on a good face for the world come June.
The gaping, embarrassing potholes that are littered across many heavily used roads, especially leading from the south of the island to Bridgetown, will have to be fixed. There cannot be frequent water outages and brown water flowing from taps with an expected 20 000 additional visitors landing here for cricket. Furthermore, we do not expect to have island-wide power outages that will take hours to resolve.
Barbados is not a newbie at hosting international and regional events. They are beneficial at many levels, but they are also very costly.
Thus, the concerns expressed by two leading financial experts that there exist some very real financial risks associated with hosting this particular cricket event should not be dismissed.
What Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Board for Undergraduate Studies Professor Justin Robinson and former UWI banking and finance lecturer Jeremy Stephen are asking us to do is not be carried away by the bright lights and the thousands of fans expected to descend on the island. They want the country to undertake a cost-benefit analysis, taking into account the examples of high debt and losses incurred by host nations staging big sporting events, as well as our own experience hosting the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2007.
They note that hosting such an event has the potential to provide net economic benefits, but skilful negotiations around terms and conditions, and careful cost management are essential if the State and taxpayers are not to end up as losers while the ICC and other vested interests walk away with the lion’s share of the financial benefits.
It is easy to be critical of the messenger when you do not favour the message, but on this occasion, the caution is worth considering, no matter how much we love the sport.
