Thursday, March 28, 2024

LASTING LEGACY?: Ideas fizzle

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HOSTING CRICKET WORLD CUP 2007 required a massive investment from Barbados and other Caribbean nations.

Given that the history of major world sports events will show that it puts host countries in significant debt, one of the challenges facing the region was how do we leverage this major cash injection into a credible legacy programme.

In view of this, World Cup Barbados, the local organising committee charged with the responsibility of managing the island’s involvement in the event, established a separate entity, Legacy Barbados and appointed as its chairman Peter Boos, now chairman emeritus of accounting firm Ernst & Young (Caribbean).

“It is well understood that simply spending hundreds of millions of dollars and putting on a big event is not sufficient to get the return on investment that is needed,” Boos told the WEEKEND NATION.

“We developed a very, very detailed legacy plan which covered how do you leverage the investment being made and use the opportunity of the exposure that you have from such an international event to create meaningful change in the society and in the country that makes life better for people.

“The extent of the legacy project was way beyond anything limited to simply putting on the World Cup in 2007. There was this broad-minded long-term plan which was seeking to capture what Barbados should be doing in the future and using the World Cup experience to give it an impetus. It was much broader than anything to do with cricket.”

Pursuant to the goal, Legacy Barbados developed a detailed report Barbados Small Island, Big Dreams: Chronicle Of The World Cup Barbados Journey That Set Out Its Goals.

In broad terms, the objectives were focused on inspiring development of the national economy through infrastructural improvements, planning and execution, service delivery, showcasing Barbados internationally, assisting all businesses to get maximum benefit from the exposure to the World Cup, developing the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, improving Government and private sector partnerships as well as inter-governmental and regional business partnerships, advancing social cohesion through the pursuit of the national goal and accelerating the national objective of a fully developed Barbados economy.

Legacy Barbados identified seven major targets:

• Export Barbados: Repositioning Barbados from an import and export business culture.

• Enjoy Barbados: Making Barbados the number one place to live, work and play.

• Cricket Barbados: Creating the future of the Cricket Legends of Barbados.

• Sports Barbados: Creating a passion in the population for sporting excellence and participation.

• Green Barbados: Transforming Barbados into the cleanest, most environmentally advanced country in the world.

• Live Barbados: Measuring and continuing to improve the quality of life for all people in Barbados.

• Think Barbados: Engaging the community in new sustainable wealth creating ideas for Barbados.

Eight years after the 2007 World Cup, Boos admits the island has fallen short in trying to accomplish the targets.

“We probably haven’t achieved most of them. It’s indicative of what I see as our problem. We get hot about an idea and we don’t follow through.

“What the project was seeking to do was create a vision, drive and cohesion amongst the players to have major impact. In Barbados, that’s difficult. People don’t willingly work together. There are too many silos, too many people are looking after their own self-interests rather than a national interest.”

He admitted that the benefits Barbados had accrued were short of what was anticipated. When asked to identify the legacy for the island, Boos said it was unfortunate that people would not necessarily see the impact it had on different people and on their lives, what skills they learnt and how they have used them since.

Boos, who recently also stepped down as chairman of the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation, also conceded that investment in Kensington Oval to the tune of $135 million has not yet started to bear fruit.

“If you look at what has happened to Kensington Oval itself, it hasn’t gone to where we would have liked it to go. Why did that happen? It comes down to the way we do things here. It is all done on the basis of friendships and affiliations,” he said.

“Kensington Oval has to become the No. 1 cricket ground in the world. We need a real passion and vision for executing a major idea. If you ask the average member of the public what did he think of the 2007 World Cup, you would probably get as many negatives as positives.

“It’s more concerning, having spent all of that money. Part of the problem we have today is with the debt. We have a significant national debt, some of which was created by the cost of Kensington Oval. To have Kensington Oval not firing on all cylinders and not becoming a sort of semi entertainment centre, is not really what you would hope for. The legacy benefits are disappointing. We haven’t really followed through on what could have been.”

Even so, Boos, whose involvement with Legacy Barbados ended in 2008, does not feel that the expected benefits of hosting the World Cup were unrealistic.

“You create those benefits for yourself. The fact that we won the bid (for the final and six Super Eight matches) was a tremendous achievement. I think we did a fabulous job to win that,” he said,

“The proposal that we submitted was brilliant. I don’t think the expectations were too high. Our commitment to mining the legacy for World Cup (just) lost its way.”

haydngill@nationnews.com

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