QUIETLY CONFIDENT: The Caribbean has no choice but to deliver a sucessful Cricket World Cup, says Rawle Brancker, former chairman of CWC.

Last September 4, Rawle Brancker resigned as chairman of ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 Inc, the wholly owned subsidiary of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) charged with the responsibility of planning, managing and executing the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 in the Caribbean.

Subsequent to his resignation, there has been a host of developments in the build-up to the big event which is 384 days away.

In an interview with SUNDAY SUN cricket correspondent Haydn Gill, Brancker airs his views on the region's preparations and issues in West Indies cricket that need to be addressed after the World Cup.

Q: It's been almost six months since you resigned as CWC chairman. Do you have any regrets?

A: Cricket has always been an integral part of my life. Whenever I am in a position to serve, I welcome it and get involved very whole-heartedly. It's unfortunate I was not able to see through the delivery of the World Cup.

I have full confidence in the local organising committees (LOCs). I have worked with them and observed them long enough in my tenure as chairman to be satisfied that we have a cadre of the finest minds across the Caribbean.

I am very quietly confident that the LOCs are going to see us through.

I have no doubt that we will deliver, in spite of the negatives we sometimes see in the media.

The Caribbean has no choice but to deliver. There are no options. There is one expectation and that is to deliver a seamless and exciting World Cup. That is what we are capable of and are on stream to doing.

I have full confidence in the LOCs across the Caribbean because of the quality of people that are involved and commitments of the governments.

Q: You have expressed confidence in the LOCs. Only recently the managing director of CWC called for more assistance to the LOCs, especially from governments. Do you think the governments are involved enough in helping the LOCs?

A: If I understand that call correctly, I don't think that the organisation is saying that the governments are not assisting enough. I think they are asking for more assistance. It is good strategy to keep asking for more. Some of us are never satisfied. We keep asking for more and more.

Unfortunately, we have this syndrome in the Caribbean where we expect more from government every time. Generally, there is too much government expectation in life. We don't do enough ourselves. We expect government to do too much for us.

In relation to World Cup, I think the governments are on board. The governments are committed and doing a tremendous amount to assist in the delivery of this World Cup. The kinds of money that is being spent and committed by each government – from my little business knowledge, I know it has to be tough on them. There are a lot of other pressing areas that need development and they are pulling funds that could go there.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime effort and opportunity. Once we do it well, as I have confidence we will, the Caribbean is going to benefit tremendously and the investment we are being asked to make will be worth it.

Q: Now that you've touched on investment – we've heard recently from Ralph Gonsalves concerns about escalating costs and his feeling that at the end, Caribbean countries could end up with an empty financial bag. What's your reaction to what he said? Is there justification for all the expenditure?

A: The cost of getting World Cup-ready is going to be worth it for the Caribbean. However, there is always a need – and particularly in this case – for containment of costs.

We would all be foolhardy if we believed there would be no challenges as we prepare ourselves for World Cup. This is the biggest undertaking we have ever got involved in as a group of countries. It would be silly to expect it to progress without any challenges.

Q: Other concerns have also been raised, particularly with venue development. There is a feeling venues are falling behind schedule, especially with stadia construction. Should we be concerned that venues are lagging behind?

A: As we go along towards March next year, we are going to be seeing some countries on schedule, some behind, some ahead. In the end, when the day of that opening ceremony comes, I believe we are going to see everybody ready in an amazingly satisfactorily way.

I've noted the recent development here in Barbados where the Prime Minister has made it clear that everything has to be done to get Barbados ready. I agree with him wholeheartedly. We have committed to staging the World Cup. You can't be 90 per cent ready.

I never applaud excessive pessimism. My whole life has been characterised with having had to be optimistic about things, otherwise I believe I wouldn't be here today.

I would say with an awful lot of certainty that the Barbados LOC must have a very sound plan in place. I know the quality of the board and management and they could never have undertaken a project of this magnitude without a very solid and tight plan and a schedule of activities.

Somewhere in those plans one should find that Barbados will erase this apparent scheduling deficit that has been reported and be back on track hopefully towards the middle of this year.

There seems to be an awful lot of people in Barbados who believe we will not deliver. I have a strong feeling that within the planning, there is a schedule and a plan which shows in time, be it two months or four months from now, we are going to be back on track as far as construction and preparedness are concerned.

The LOC will be well advised to make that schedule or plan available to the public so that confidence could be restored.

If you are building a house, you have a schedule and plan of activity for the duration of the construction. It must exist for Kensington and the rest of the development. The LOC would be well advised to share that with Barbados to provide the comfort, information and confidence the public deserves and requires.

Q: Outside of Barbados, the feeling is that venues are also behind schedule. From where you sat, would you have expected these venues to be behind and what factors might have contributed?

A: I am not close enough to it now, but the little knowledge I have tells me that along the way towards March next year, some countries will fall back, some will move ahead, some will be on stream. I'm confident that come the end of the year, everybody is going to be ready. I'll be very disappointed if that does not turn out to be the case.

Q: One of the issues you had on your resignation was Caribbean businesses not benefiting enough from the event, especially against the background of the implementation of the Caribbean Economic Enterprise Initiative. Since then, have you seen enough to suggest there is something in it for Caribbean businesses?

A: I personally have not seen it. I don't know if it has improved. If I had my way, what I would have done from the very beginning is that I would have preferred to take the route of making the opportunities available to Caribbean business people and insist that where necessary they should seek international assistance in delivering the contract.

We probably made an error in going the route of inviting tenders which international companies were most likely to qualify for and then asking them to involve our local businesses to a minimum tune of ten per cent.

We should have made sure of regional involvement in a different way. That is water under the bridge now.

I would hope that as the facts come out and as we get reports on the World Cup when it is done, we would all be satisfied that there was enough Caribbean involvement and it was just not an event in the Caribbean for an international entity.

Q: You'd made a recommendation for a forensic audit of management transactions at CWC. Since then, we haven't heard if there is going to be one. Do you believe your call has fallen on deaf ears?

A: I would hope not. I have had feedback from leaders. Some have said publicly it should be a requirement. I certainly think it is a requirement. I would hope the [pressure] of getting ready for the World Cup does not in any way cause those who can make it happen to forget or allow the passage of time to bury the need to pursue it.

I think the priority now is to get the Caribbean ready for the World Cup, deliver it seamlessly and in the best way we can, and for the world to receive it. After that, there are some serious issues surrounding West Indies cricket that should be addressed by us the stakeholders. There are too many things wrong at the same time and I am not seeing any serious effort made to address them.

Q: What are some of those serious issues?

A: The whole question of our demise is one of priority. There are two other serious issues that cannot be swept under the carpet.

The first is the Digicel contract and its conditionality. We as stakeholders must know what that conditionality is. It has too much of a bearing on our development from here.

The other thing is the Lucky Report. We need to be able to discuss and hear from the people who were involved why that seems to have gone wrong.

We need to look at the whole structure of West Indies cricket and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and its administration, its development policy and lack of known appropriate plans. The whole thing needs restructuring with a new approach to the ownership of West Indies cricket. Otherwise, somebody is going to see the potential of it and buy us out and then we'll have absolutely no say. All we would be expected to do is pay at the turnstiles and watch the games. We'll therefore end up with the major asset in the Caribbean owned by external forces.

Q: In relation to the administration, the WICB has recently announced some planned changes. One is to add four directors. What's your take on that?

A: Numbers never solve problems. It's the quality of people on boards, the management and the will to make the changes that are necessary. We have not seen that will coming out of the WICB. It is behaving like a little closed shop where nobody should ask any questions, nobody should attempt questioning what they are doing, just accept what they are doing and leave them alone. That we cannot accept for West Indies cricket's sake.

Q: Finally, you've always stressed your commitment to serve. Some have suggested that your expertise could be still utilised. Have you given consideration in serving in another capacity? Has the Barbados LOC approached you?

A: I've always had a good working relationship with the people who make up the Barbados LOC. Surely, I talk with them from time to time. If advice is needed, I will happily give it, as I have done. But I'm not very involved.

I've not been asked to be very involved. I've not sought to be very involved because I'm not that kind of person. I don't have a history of promoting myself. If I'm asked to do something, I consider it and if it suits, I do it. I've not been out there asking for involvement. My life has been cricket- filled, cricket-committed and it continues to be so. If someone thinks I have skills that can be used, then I'll consider it.

I wish CWC and the LOCs well and continue to sincerely hope and pray we'll have a tremendously successful World Cup, free of mishaps, unnecessary challenges and surprises of less profitability than expected, because our future cricket development is so heavily dependent upon our achieving the maximum.