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I regard Chris Dehring's latest comments about the 2007 Cricket World Cup no more than a wake up call or to create a sense of urgency among regional administrators and governments to get serious about putting things in place for the big dance.

Dehring has gone on record as saying that Sabina Park could very well miss out on hosting World Cup games unless the Jamaican authorities put in a reasonable bid.

He also said that countries with a very remote cricketing history like Argentina, Haiti and The Bahamas have shown interest in hosting matches.

Do you want to tell me, that the cricketing authorities are getting so desperate that they would be prepared to bypass traditional cricket venues like Sabina Park and Kensington Oval for some of the venues just mentioned given the fact that there' s no historical link between them and cricket?

Philosophically, it does not make sense, so I suspect his language was couched in a way to make all the major stakeholders understand that some urgency is required in planning for what will arguably be the biggest sporting event staged in this hemisphere given the importance of cricket to the region.

Thus, his reference to the fact that St Lucia and Grenada, for instance, have built ultra-modern, state-of-the-art cricket stadia, that Antigua is in the process of upgrading its facilities and that the government there has just committed a sizeable amount of money to the World Cup kitty.

This was Dehring's way of telling the other traditional international cricket hosts to get in line, get on board and soon. I don't have a quarrel with him in this regard because generally speaking, we are a people who like to procrastinate and leave most things for the last minute.

Planning for an event of the magnitude of cricket's World Cup will definitely require greater alertness and speed, lest we are caught with our pants down and become the laughing stock of the world.

But we are too proud a people to let this happen; so I am sure that all the key players will soon start to shape up. As far as Kensington's claims are concerned, there are those who believe that there's a great deal of remedial work to be done on infrastructure to keep it on track with other international venues.

Some are worried about parking, although it's my experience having attended the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and the football World Cup in France in 1998, that a shuttle system is used to transport spectators to and from the venue.

We can do it here as well, so I don't see this as a major headache. What I believe should be seen as a priority right now is Government's commitment to the project because the world cup planning committee can't be left wondering whether the right hand will get support from the left and if so, when.

I have complete faith that the Government will be a willing to be a partner in not only ensuring that Kensington gets to be a host, but in the wider scheme of things, play a leading and meaningful role to make World Cup 2007 a huge success for cricket and all Caribbean people.

I believe Dehring is trying to suggest we have to start showing that interest from now.

© Barbados Nation