An interesting article by Ian S Mohan, a World Cup volunteer, about his experiences working at Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad during the group stage. He details many of the bullshit regulations and restrictions the ICC imposed for the tournament that only served to rob the venues of their local flavour.
We went to two of those games in Port of Spain, and as overblown and Draconian as the rules seemed to us -- a pair of wallets on holiday whose primary concerns were avoiding sunstroke and finding a quiet spot for a quick joint between innings -- I can only imagine how it all must have felt to the locals who dedicated their time at the venues, out of nothing but national pride and a love of cricket. You could see the frustration in their eyes -- they wanted to help, they felt bad about not being able to help, but all they could muster was the helpless look of those whose better judgements are overriden by their need to keep the job.
Regarding the ICC, Mohan writes:
They don't care about the people who keep cricket alive: us. Thousands of real cricket fans stayed away - they said they had self respect and pride and would not pay money to be treated this way. I now understand their view and feel that I compromised my self respect to be part of the tournament. We were told how to talk, how to smile, how to welcome the tourists, how to speak. We had a handbook to learn from.
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