Welcome to the West Indies

If only we were always this helpful, courteous and efficient in dealing with each other. Monday morning around the UWI St Augustine Campus was like being in a whole different country.

Police everywhere, not buffing you up, but politely moving the traffic along. World Cup volunteers, bedecked in brightly-coloured uniforms befitting a Caribbean event, positioned every 50 metres or so, on the route to UWI SPEC to guide motorists and pedestrians alike in the right direction.

My direction was towards the Accreditation Centre in the main building, and despite the trouble-free journey thus far, I was still anticipating some sort of hiccup, in keeping with decades of being conditioned by a don't-care-damn culture that makes almost any interaction with any public service department an exercise in frustration.

Yet less than five minutes after walking into the office (open since 5.30 am), I was back outside with the precious pass and a lovely bag containing a press kit (we media types really enjoy any kind of freeness). The experience left me with a hollow, anti-climactic feeling for I had prepared myself mentally to deal with at least some form of administrative bungling, or officious hostility, or both.

On the way back out, there were no vehicles parked indiscriminately on either side of the road, no litter strewn across the lawns and no one stopping just so to pick up passengers. In fact, it was reassuring in a strange sort of way to see normal life resumed as I hit the Eastern Main Road: horns blaring, drivers cussing and doubles vendors serving a sizeable clientele, some of whom didn't seem to care that they were standing directly in the path of oncoming road hogs.

On this week of warm-up matches before the real business begins, we are seeing just what our citizens are capable of when properly motivated. Money is what usually prompts the required change, but remember, these are volunteers, who just want to be involved in the once-in-a-lifetime experience of a World Cup in the West Indies.

For most of the players among the small fry of this tournament, this event is also more than likely their one and only chance to sample life in cricket's Big Yard. The manner in which the predominantly amateur players of Ireland pushed South Africa all the way, at the same time that the much more experienced Kenyans were giving the West Indies a bit of a scare up in Trelawny, suggests that there is a real desire to make the most of this opportunity.

Who knows how much the stinging criticism about too many sub-standard teams in the sport's premier event might be turned into a motivating factor? It is still more than likely that the Irish and Kenyans will be joining the Bangladeshis, Zimbabweans, Dutch, Scots, Canadians and Bermudians on flights back home in three weeks' time, but it's entirely within the realms of possibility that they could have their moments against some of the really big fish.

One player who is already enjoying his moment in the sun is an unlikely character who overshadowed the efforts of two West Indian namesakes- Bravo and Smith- on Monday.

Dwayne Leverock's Bermuda gave a pathetic batting effort against England in St Vincent, being shot out for just 45 runs. Yet the jovial, bulky slow bowler more than held his own when England batted first.

Given the intense focus on producing finely-chiselled athletes at the highest level of the game, Leverock - all 270 lbs of him - looked completely out of place in the World Cup environment, even in what amounted to a 13-a-side training session at Arnos Vale. That is, until he rippled up to the crease and delivered ten overs of better-than-ordinary left-arm spin, removing Paul Collingwood to a catch at the wicket and having Kevin Pietersen smartly stumped.

Obviously, he is more than a few notches below world class, but his willingness to use flight and guile, complemented by impressive accuracy, presented accomplished batsmen with a real challenge to get him away. It will probably be a different story when he comes up against the Indians and Sri Lankans at the Queen's Park Oval from next week, but I really, really hope that Leverock does well in those Group B matches, if only to show the West Indies selectors that even the Bermudians are ahead of us in the appreciation of what classical spin bowling is all about.

Successful or not, he will surely be a favourite for Oval fans who, in an earlier era, never hesitated to let Rangy Nanan have it whenever he looked a bit more heavy-set than usual.

This is really what the Caribbean cricketing experience is all about. The International Cricket Council's all-encompassing rules for their World Cup may prevent all sorts of seemingly harmless items from being brought into their grounds. Inappropriately branded shirts have to be turned inside-out, unauthorised liquids must be consumed outside or dumped, and written permission must be had before a conch shell gets past the turnstiles.

But long before there were flag-wavers, face-painters, deafening amplifiers and a never-ending supply of winer girls, West Indians enjoyed themselves armed with nothing more than a wonderful sense of humour and a genuine appreciation of good cricket, whether it was exhibited by visiting players or their own heroes.

They can't take that away from us, even with the very best security screening systems known to man.