Tony Becca, Contributor

Last weekend was a good one for sport - certainly for cricket. It was a good one for tourism and, hopefully years from now, when sports tourism has really and finally taken off and bringing in millions of dollars into the national coffers, it will be remembered as the weekend, or one of the weekends, when it all started.

For years, Barbados, our brothers and our neighbours, have been in sport tourism, for years, and for the benefit of Barbadians, they have been milking the sport tourism market, for years many of us in Jamaica have been talking about the need to get into that market, and unfortunately, in a country where talk is cheap and usually amounts to nothing, for years nothing was done about it.

Fortunately, however, comes along the World Cup of cricket. Everyone, including those in the tourist industry who, with tens of thousands of visitors expected in the island, wants to piggy back on it and make some money, and in their attempt to attract the tourists in really large numbers, to make them comfortable and happy in a bid to get them to come gain - long after the World Cup is over, they have looked at sport and have said, that is the way to go.

That, according to the Govern-ment and those in favour, is the reason for spending the people's money on a new stadium in Trelawny, and that is the reason for the presence of ace cricketer Courtney Walsh in the group of Jamaicans going around the world encouraging people to come to Jamaica for the World Cup.

Sports tourism

According to the Government and those in favour, the stadium in Trelawny will be a part of the thrust and the hub of the move towards sport tourism.

According to them, they will be getting, among other things, American sport teams such as those in football, baseball and basketball to train in Jamaica.

That, however, is in their dreams, and as some of those in favour have said, instead of ending up as something to serve sport tourism, it will end up hosting musical extravaganzas like Reggae Sunsplash and serving entertain-ment tourism more than sport tourism.

Sport tourism is sport and tourism, or tourism and sport, working together, locally and overseas, for the benefit of each other and for the country, and as far as I am concerned, the first step was taken a few weeks ago, on Labour Day weekend, when SuperClubs hosted the Jamaica Masters in a cricket match at Kaiser Sports Club in Discovery Bay.

Lashings festival

The second step was taken last weekend when the Jamaica Cricket Association and Half Moon Resorts hosted the world famous Lashings out of England.

The four-day event, dubbed the Jamaica Cricket Festival of Stars and featuring some of the world's best retired cricket stars, involved a dinner, a 40-overs cricket match, a golf tournament, a 20/20 match, and beach cricket, and apart from the dinner, based on the response, certainly on the gathering at the 40-overs cricket match in Trelawny, it was a tremendous success.

The first step was one aimed at getting the locals in sport involved in tourism, the second one was aimed at selling Jamaica through sport to the overseas market and, hopefully, there will be many more of both to come as the tourist sector attempt to improve its product by selling not only the sand, sea and sun, not only the rum and coke and what have you, but also the great tradition of Jamaica in sports.

Jamaica is a brand name in sport, and in doing so, Jamaica can attract more visitors here and can get them to mingle with Jamaicans and expose them to the warmth and hospitality of the Jamaican people.

The warmth and the hospitality that visitors will not see by reading, listening to, watching the news or by sitting by the pool, the warmth and hospitality they will experience by going out and mixing with the people in natural Jamaica surroundings.

Although the former players defeated the Jamaica X1, although it exposed some of the weaknesses in Jamaica's batting, the visit of Lashings was good for Jamaica, and thanks to the JCA and the likes of Paul Campbell, to Half Moon Hotel, and the supporting sponsors - National Housing Trust, Radio Jamaica, the Jamaica Observer, Air Jamaica, Red Stripe, Pepsi, and Jamaica Money Market Brokers - for making it possible.

Missing straight balls

Listen to this conversation after the 44-year-old Walsh had left the field after opening the bowling, bowling four overs, and taking two wickets for eight runs.

"Cuddy, you come off the field already?" asked Curtley Ambrose, Walsh's partner in years of Test cricket.

"How you mean, pardy. I told you I was going to bowl four overs - two for you and two for me."

"Oh. So one of the wickets is mine then?" asked Ambrose.

"No, pardy. The first over was for me, the second was for you, the third was for me, and the fourth was for you," answered Walsh.

"So you telling me that you got one wicket in the first over and one in the third?" asked Ambrose.

"Yes, pardy. That's exactly how it went," said a smiling Walsh.

Among the Lashings players were former West Indies batting greats Alvin Kallicharran, Gordon Greenidge, and Richie Richardson, and the standard of Jamaica's batting was underlined when one of them looked at me and said: "Tony, if these are the guys representing Jamaica, I am sorry for West Indies cricket. These guys miss even straight balls."