Rivals agree: World Cup lacked atmosphere

Australians fans sit and wait ahead of another poorly-attended match © Getty Images

They may be arch rivals on the cricket field but as fans they agreed on one thing: this World Cup was expensive and lacked the Caribbean flavour at the match venues.

Diehard English fans, the members of the globe-trotting noisy Barmy Army, and their Australian counterparts, the colourfully outfitted and equally loud Fanatics, had a combined presence of around 2700 members in the region over the six-week period of the tournament. But both groups said the expense of travelling, accommodation and tickets prohibited a greater number of fans from taking in "calypso cricket".

In the case of the Barmy Army, the cheapest package available was £3000 (US$6000) for a two-week stay while other packages went as high as £5000 (US$10,000) for a 10-day stay. They were exempted from the US$100 visa requirement.

"It's been pretty expensive for people and that has been prohibitive to the younger people," said Barmy Army spokesman Paul Burham. He explained that a lot of the English fans were just coming off the massive January Ashes series in Australia. However, he felt that there would have been many more fans if the price was cheaper, adding that the prices only dropped after organisers got desperate for people to come.

But apart from the discouraging prices, Burham said that once here the unique atmosphere of a blend of warm tropical colours with rhythmic cheering and lively encouragement from characters at the grounds was missing. "I think the best game . . . was the West Indies-England game. The atmosphere there I think was probably the best, the best atmosphere I've seen in a game of cricket . . . It was a close game. The fans got along well and at the end everyone was shaking everyone's hand and I guess that's what they have been trying to achieve all along."

Steve Laffey, the spokesman for Fanatics, said that while outside of the cricket grounds hospitality was good, members were disappointed in the atmosphere at matches. "It is well below the atmosphere we were expecting at the grounds. We expected it to be a lot more lively, calypso cricket, the atmosphere usually associated with cricket in the Caribbean."

Australians shelled out an average of US$4100 for a seven-day trip that took in three islands, Barbados, Jamaica and St Lucia. Some of the packages went as high as US$15,000 for a ten-day trip and those prices, said Leffey, were quite expensive.