St Kitts - The World Cup's jewel

Chris Dehring, the tournament's chief organiser, recently admitted he was still uncertain of the legacy that the World Cup was going to leave in the West Indies. "It could be the very best thing that happens to the Caribbean," he said, "or the very worst." Over the past week in St Kitts and Nevis, the benefits of a bold economic gamble are beginning to come into ever sharper focus. It may not be the same for every one of the nine diverse nations that has bought into this project, but in this, the tiniest of the islands involved, backs are beginning to be slapped with pleasing regularity.

"St Kitts is probably the jewel in the crown of the Cricket World Cup," said Dehring. "Everything works, it is a beautiful place and everything is within walking distance." And no-one has been at greater pains to demonstrate this fact than the Prime Minister himself, Dr Denzil Douglas who, warming to his opportunity to play the statesman on the world stage, has become the very model of ubiquity over the course of this week.

Short and affable, and built like a bantamweight boxer, Dr Douglas has been anywhere and everywhere this week, singing the praises of an event that, if truth be told, has not yet burst into life in this particular group, but is smouldering away happily on a nice long fuse. On Monday, after hanging out with Sir Garry Sobers in the Nevis Room of the Marriott Hotel, he and his cabinet colleagues strolled down to join a media gathering in a beach bar in Bird Rock. There they sipped rum cocktails while listening to a reggae band, their very visibility a testament to their self-satisfaction.

Dr Douglas is on a mission to transform his island, and it is a mission he believes he is accomplishing. Elected in 2004 for a third consecutive term, his popularity would appear to be genuine, although he is fully aware that this year - World Cup year - is the moment he has to start delivering on his promises. In 2005, after 350 years as a sugar-exporting monoculture, his government took the traumatic but essential decision to close the island's sole factory. With it went 1500 jobs, and incomes for 4% of the nation's workforce.

"This is a critical time in the economic transformation of the country," said Dr Douglas, appealing to the media and the billions of viewers on global television to take heed of the "investment opportunities" available on his island. "Because of the realities of international trade, the loss of preferences and the decreases in the price of sugar, 18 months ago, the government took a very bold decision with the full support of the people," he continued. "This tournament is not so much for our own people, but an opportunity for visitors to come to St Kitts and Nevis and see what we have to offer."

A shop window is what Dr Douglas wants this tournament to be, although his lofty vision is not meeting with unanimous approval. "The government has hidden a lot of things from the people here," says Dolores, a female taxi-driver who spends her days hanging off the Berkeley Monument clocktower in central Basseterre, scrapping for business with the other drivers whose cabs line the square. "The word is that the World Cup is bringing in a lot of people, but you see it for yourself. Do you see it full? They tell us it's booked out. But at US$80 a head, who's buying? That's maybe a week's pay if he's an ordinary guy. Only rich people are going to benefit out of it.

"Thank God for a lot of Australians and Scottish," she continues, as we head off on the ten-minute journey from Warner Park to the palatial new Marriott in Sugar Bay, the jewel in St Kitts's infant tourism sector. "We've not seen nearly enough people coming to the islands. We thought they'd be all over the place and the government even got in 30 extra taxis to accommodate the World Cup. But in two weeks, the season will be done, and I don't know what will happen then. If you don't have jobs, crime is going to increase. Man is desperate."

Dolores, her alert brain concealed by a shabby, possibly drunk, demeanour, was herself working in the sugar industry until she saw the writing on the wall and set about reapplying for her taxi licence. But she has doubts whether many of her former colleagues will be able to cope with the island's transformation. "They just won't fit into tourism," she continues. "Some of these people, they been working 30-35-40 years in the sugar industry, working on a day-to-day basis for four hours, then home. They are accustomed to that, they don't want eight- or nine-hour shifts."

It is for precisely this apathetic reason that the government has reached beyond the local population while the cash cow of the World Cup is in town. Ricky Skerritt, the former manager of the West Indies team, is the current minister for tourism, sports and culture - a department whose very title shows how intermeshed the three areas are destined to be. "I made a point of not overestimating the impact of the World Cup," he told Cricinfo. "The grounds are empty? That's no problem. We've got people watching it on TV in the bars around the island. That's economic activity being generated. I want our people to aspire to be businessmen, not taxi drivers."

Skerritt is under no illusions that Warner Park is about to usurp Sabina Park or the Kensington Oval as the Caribbean's premier cricket ground. "We won't get many international games," he admitted, "but it was thanks to the World Cup that we hosted our first-ever international game here [against India in April 2006], because all the traditional venues were still under construction. We're already reaping the benefits, because we were swift out of the planning stage."

The stadium's short boundaries, so effectively plundered by Herschelle Gibbs last week, are a further reason why the very highest-level games may continue to elude the island, but Skerritt is determined that these limitations should be turned into an asset. "We are already marketing Warner Park for schools tours," he said. "The MCC Young Cricketers are on their way after the World Cup and, although it may be letting the cat out of the bag, we have already been in contact with several English counties about youth and pre-season tours.

"We have planned very conservatively on this event, and we have managed our budgets very economically," added Skerritt, who believes that the cost to the island - thanks in no small part to generosity of the Taiwanese government - will be little more than US$18 million. "We've showed the Caribbean that we are ready to host international cricket, and later on, when the ICC Champion's Trophy comes to the West Indies, we want to be part of that bid as well. We have the resources already."

And that is more than can be said for some rather larger, rather grander, countries that one might care to name and shame. This evening on ZIZ, the country's delightfully ham-fisted television station, every other story had a cricket-related theme - except for one that that renowned West Indian, Sir Trevor MacDonald, might have called the "And Finally …" item.

"And finally," announced the newscaster, blinking into an unsteady camera, "the budget for the London Olympics has risen to £9.3 billion - almost four times the original estimate …"

Was this just a hint of a dig from a proud and increasingly self-sufficient little island? Quite possibly, and on the evidence of the past fortnight, quite justifiably too. All that remains now is for the people of the island to make good their Prime Minister's promise, and fill the stands of Warner Park to bursting for next Saturday's seismic showdown between Australia and South Africa. If that can be done, then the first chapter of the 2007 World Cup can be slammed shut with satisfaction.