By Tony Becca, Senior Sport Editor
Jackie Hendriks (centre), president of the Jamaica Cricket Association, greets Prime Minister P. J. Patterson at a function at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston, on Saturday night to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the first Test match played by the West Indies. At left is Gus Logie, West Indies coach. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
THE CARICOM Heads of Government meeting opens in Montego Bay on Wednesday and on the agenda will be World Cup cricket. The World Cup will be staged in the Caribbean in 2007, and, according to Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, it will be of tremendous economic importance to the region. Its success, on and off the field, is therefore important, and because of that, several Governments will have to work together to ensure its success.
At a function at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston, on Saturday night, to mark the 75th anniversary of the first Test match played by the West Indies, Mr. Patterson said, "Our aim must be to make this the best World Cup ever to make it the standard by which others will be judged, and to benefit from it."
One area that has been identified as a priority of co-operation by CARICOM Governments is the movement of visitors throughout the region, and Prime Minister Patterson is to recommend to the other heads of Government that CARICOM pass a Special World Cup Act.
The Act, said the Prime Minister, would settle on one common border for immigration and customs. That would enable the organisers to draw on all the transportation within the region and what could be commandeered from abroad so that the volume of visitors expected could be moved speedily from island to island.
MUST CAPITALISE ON TOURISM
"The ability to successfully undertake such a tremendous venture will be indicative of our ability as a region to face the challenges posed by the new international order," Mr. Patterson said, adding that "the region must capitalise on an area tourism where we have a niche advantage in today's fiercely competitive global arena."
According to Mr. Patterson, World Cup 2007 on the CARICOM agenda "signals the dedication to the diversification of the region's tourism product and a deepening of the integration process alongside other initiatives such as the Single Market and Economy and the Caribbean Court of Justice."
The World Cup, he said, "will test the sinews of the integration movement and our capacity as a people to make an enduring difference not only to the thousands we will welcome to the region, but also to the structures, the facilities for training, entertainment and recreation which we will have to provide and which will remain as foundations on which we can sustain a better quality of life for all our people."
