Credit to the nation

In this month of heightened national awareness and occasional fly-by-night patriotism, let us not forget those who did us proud earlier this year in the biggest sporting event ever staged in our part of the world.

Trinidad and Tobago's experience of the 2007 World Cup was not exactly overflowing with wonderful memories. Stifling restrictions imposed by the ICC angered many and dissuaded others from even bothering to turn up. Official reports of excellent ticket sales were contradicted by the sight of large areas of vacant seats around the Queen's Park Oval, except for the headline clash between Sri Lanka and India. This left many to wonder if the absence of a typical West Indian atmosphere was so much of a disincentive as to cause so many to stay at home and watch the action on television even with tickets already bought.

Yet none of this was the fault of the local officials here or in the other territories for that matter, for it was the business of the respective governments to sign off on the Host Venue Agreement (HVA), although the manner in which some of those same leaders started complaining and distancing themselves from the exhaustive rules and regulations suggested that they, or their advisers, were either not fully aware as to what they had committed their countries to or were expecting that the sight of full grounds, full hotels and overflowing coffers would blind almost everyone to the obvious drawbacks.

In the circumstances, the LOCs did an outstanding job in mobilising personnel and other resources, causing more than a few to wonder just why such efficiency was only possible at the behest of a demanding ICC and otherwise almost non-existent in a routine international season.

Nevertheless, thousands of people in the region now have the invaluable experience of managing and facilitating a global event, experience which should serve the region in good stead when the 2010 Champions Trophy is staged here.

It can only be hoped, however, that our leaders can summon the collective testicular fortitude, based on the realities of hosting the World Cup, to examine the HVA properly next time around and tell the ICC, very politely of course (we don't want to turn them away completely from visiting our little slices of paradise and spending large sums of precious foreign currency), what to do with some of their more oppressive restrictions.

But as well as the LOC operated in Trinidad, this is not a campaign for CEO Anand Daniel or any member of his staff to have an honour of some kind pinned on by President Max Richards on Independence evening. And if anyone among the political directorate is thinking that this is a good opportunity for self-praise, they should have the decency to realise that the embarrassing fiasco of the Brian Lara Stadium (or High Performance Centre if you prefer) will render such a notion as obscene as the amount of money being ploughed into the site at Tarouba.

No sir, the people most deserving of some form of official recognition of their efforts at the World Cup come August 31 are the volunteers. I had stated it in passing during the early days of the tournament, so let me reinforce it now: it was these citizens, drawn from all sectors of our diverse society, who were the real positive image of an event that failed to live up to all of its grandiose expectations.

Many may have seen the opportunity to be a volunteer as a chance to watch World Cup matches for free, except that the running around that most of them had to do in catering to the many demands of fans, players, officials, media and dignitaries might have left them wondering about what they had signed up for. Selfish objectives aside, it seemed that most just wanted to be part of the once-in-a-lifetime experience of a World Cup, even if it meant spending all day ferrying sandwiches, lunches and other refreshments to the press box or commentary booths (let me tell you, nobody loves freeness more than us media practitioners).

As I understand it, some of the volunteers were none too pleased with the manner in which they were being ordered around by certain LOC officials, prompting a few to stay away from the farewell lap around the Oval halfway through the final match between Bangladesh and Bermuda. Could you imagine what it must have been like for those accustomed to managing and issuing instructions in an everyday professional capacity to get buff-up for not bringing this or that on time?

Yet even if they wanted to respond along the lines of "Who the ***** you feel you talking to?", most managed to maintain a pleasant disposition and were a credit to a nation that is not given to bending over backwards for anybody. It is this attitude of casual indifference that probably prompted one Australian journalist to describe Trinidad as "a forgettable place if ever there was one" during the 2003 visit by Ricky Ponting's squad.

Such unflattering remarks may really sting higher up the Caribbean chain of islands where tourism, and therefore positive publicity, is everything.

Down here, though, they are neither here nor there, which makes the commitment, discipline and consistently pleasant demeanour of those World Cup volunteers in their flaming orange shirts worthy of some form of collective recognition in four weeks' time.

The only challenge should be deciding who will represent them at President's House.