World Cup should have been more compact, says Caribbean top banker

Bridgetown, Barbados, Apr 29 (UNI) Country's top banker and avid cricket fan Robert Le Hunte, who heads the Barbados National Banks, has said the World Cup should have been hosted in fewer Caribbean nations, which would have made for better profits and lesser losses.

''I think probably we should not have had the World Cup spread out throughout the whole region. We should have concentrated it in a smaller amount of countries,'' sadi Le Hunte.

''There would have been less money spent by the smaller countries, so that would have been better for a region rather than having this thing all over the place and having these small islands get into that level of expenditure,'' he added.

''And rather than everybody making a small amount of money or having losses, it would overall have been more profitable.'' Le Hunte also expressed his views of sharing the profit between the host nations. But, he added that the idea was highly unlikely no one in the Caribbean opines his views.

According to the banker, it was questionable whether the smaller nations would be able to recoup the financial costs outlaid for the event as many of these countries lacked the proper infrastructure to capitalise on their tourism sector.

''In some of the other Caribbean countries, I question the level of expenditure as it relates to the size of the country, its potential and its infrastructural development for long term tourism.

In those countries I have a serious concern,'' Le Hunte said.

However former ICC president Ehsan Mani, was of the view that the World Cup would leave a legacy for the region in the shape of the many new and refurbished stadiums that had come up across the Caribbean.

''We see the superb infrastructure which probably wouldn't have happened but for the World Cup,'' Mani said.

UNI