Where have all the fans gone? by AFP

---

Event:

ICC World Cup 2006/07

---

DateLine: 26th March 2007

 

When Inzamam-ul-Haq bid a tearful farewell to international one-day cricket, the crowd rose to acclaim the great Pakistani.

 

The problem was that there were so few people inside the 20,000-capacity Sabina Park in Kingston that Inzamam, had he so desired, could have personally shook the hands of all of them without delaying proceedings.

 

If the World Cup causes fever, so far, most of the Caribbean is suffering only from a mild skin irritation.

 

Crowds figures in games not featuring the hosts have been disappointing which is hardly surprising given that some ticket prices for first round matches were as high as 115 dollars in parts of the Caribbean where the average weekly wage is around 150 dollars a week.

 

Saturday's mouth-watering clash at Warner Park in St Kitts between the world's best sides, Australia and South Africa, created a 671-run festival in glorious sunshine but still the 10,500-capacity Warner Park struggled to bring in the fans.

 

Reports earlier in the week suggested advance ticket sales of around 8,000 for the Group A decider.

 

"Any West Indies team playing here would have filled the stands," Ricky Skerritt, the Sports and Tourism manager for St Kitts, and a former West Indies team manager, told AFP.

 

"Hosting the Dutch and the Scots did not attract crowds. There was never an expectation that spectators would bombard the stands.

 

"Most of the games in the 2003 World Cup, when the hosts were not playing, were sparsely attended."

 

Local people were not convinced.

 

"They should have scheduled West Indies matches at various venues so that local crowds could fill the stadiums," said taxi driver Nehemia Cooran.

 

"Who wants to watch Scotland play Holland."

 

The hosts played all of their three first round matches in Kingston.

 

However, Charles Wilkins, the head of the local organising committee in St Kitts, said people have to be realistic.

 

"Prices are high, but for cricket you have to pay," he said.

 

When Australia crushed Scotland at Warner Park, around 3,000 people came through the turnstiles. In a desperate bid to fill the stands, organisers resorted to handing out 4,000 tickets to local schoolchildren.

 

"It boils down to the economy. The Australians are better off - air fares, tickets and other things - they are here in big numbers," said Neil Delesca, from Durban, as he surveyed the comparatively large number of Aussie supporters in St Kitts on Saturday.

 

At Gros Islet, in St Lucia, the situation was just as worrying.

 

At the 20,00-capacity Beausejour Stadium, official figures said that 12,500 people watched England play New Zealand but only 4,300 bothered to see the Black Caps defeat Kenya.

 

St Lucia's tourist chiefs hope that the picturesque images of the island, being beamed around the world, will attract visitors in the long term.

 

President of the St Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association, Silvanius Fontenard told the BBC: "We're just hoping that the exposure the country gains from hosting the games will serve us in good stead.

 

"I guess that is an optimistic position that we have to take at this point and hope that it will bring some benefits in the long term because in the short term clearly there have been more losses than benefits."

(Article: Copyright © 2007 AFP)