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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Warner blasts CWC organisers</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>AFP
Saturday, March 03, 2007
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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=358 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>WARNER. some of the islands should not be hosting matches. their monies should have been spent to make life better for their people</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>KINGSTON, Jamaica (AFP) - Top Caribbean football administrator Austin 'Jack' Warner has blasted organisers of the Cricket World Cup for their "atrocious" marketing of the sport's global showpiece.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"This event was government funded, so they do not have to worry about money," Warner, a vice-president of FIFA, football's world governing body, said of the nine host nations.
"If they had to pick up the tab, then they would have been marketing the event as a religion."<P class=StoryText align=justify>Warner, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, also listed a number of organisational shortcomings, and warned that the world expected the Caribbean to fail at hosting the event.
"They expect us in the Caribbean to fail," he told a symposium in Trinidad for Caribbean sports correspondents.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"They already know that we will fail on the field. They have already predicted that. They also want us to fail off the field.
"One bad experience can make the whole event go sour. We need to be on guard. What the world expects is to see a flaw in our organisation to say: 'I told you so, those natives can't do it'.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"CWC 2007 was thrust upon us. Some of the islands should not be hosting matches. Their monies should have been spent to make life better for their people."<P class=StoryText align=justify>Warner expressed concern that the thousands of visitors who will be in the Caribbean and the millions following the matches may not get what they expected.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"What the world expects is much more than cricket," he said. "They expect passion, they expect excitement.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"They expect good security, hassle-free travel, and very little trouble to get into the venue, along with the social events around the cricket, with the region's indigenous music being the mainstay."<P class=StoryText align=justify>Warner also bemoaned there was not even a village to promote the island's very popular and colourful Carnival, or a calypso tent only days after the end of T and T's annual Carnival celebrations.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"The world expects to see other things as well, but will their expectations be fulfilled?"
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>AFP
Saturday, March 03, 2007
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=358 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>WARNER. some of the islands should not be hosting matches. their monies should have been spent to make life better for their people</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>KINGSTON, Jamaica (AFP) - Top Caribbean football administrator Austin 'Jack' Warner has blasted organisers of the Cricket World Cup for their "atrocious" marketing of the sport's global showpiece.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"This event was government funded, so they do not have to worry about money," Warner, a vice-president of FIFA, football's world governing body, said of the nine host nations."If they had to pick up the tab, then they would have been marketing the event as a religion."<P class=StoryText align=justify>Warner, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, also listed a number of organisational shortcomings, and warned that the world expected the Caribbean to fail at hosting the event.
"They expect us in the Caribbean to fail," he told a symposium in Trinidad for Caribbean sports correspondents.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"They already know that we will fail on the field. They have already predicted that. They also want us to fail off the field.
"One bad experience can make the whole event go sour. We need to be on guard. What the world expects is to see a flaw in our organisation to say: 'I told you so, those natives can't do it'.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"CWC 2007 was thrust upon us. Some of the islands should not be hosting matches. Their monies should have been spent to make life better for their people."<P class=StoryText align=justify>Warner expressed concern that the thousands of visitors who will be in the Caribbean and the millions following the matches may not get what they expected.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"What the world expects is much more than cricket," he said. "They expect passion, they expect excitement.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"They expect good security, hassle-free travel, and very little trouble to get into the venue, along with the social events around the cricket, with the region's indigenous music being the mainstay."<P class=StoryText align=justify>Warner also bemoaned there was not even a village to promote the island's very popular and colourful Carnival, or a calypso tent only days after the end of T and T's annual Carnival celebrations.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"The world expects to see other things as well, but will their expectations be fulfilled?"