WE have said it in this space previously. So this newspaper has no difficulty applauding the call by Mr Robert Bryan, the ICC World Twenty20 tournament director, for Caribbean countries to seriously set about maximising the benefits of stadia built for the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

In the process, of course, the region would be developing a sports industry. Even with the worldwide economic recession, sports remains among the thriving sectors in global services. In the United States alone, the sports industry is valued at in excess of US$400 billion.

It must be a source of extreme bemusement to the rest of the world that despite its rich history, tradition, and continuing excellence, Jamaican and Caribbean sport remains essentially amateur.

Such may have been understandable decades ago because of the relatively small populations and the resulting difficulty in consistently generating large live audiences for events. There can be no excuse in today’s world of global television.

Organisers of the World Twenty20 cricket, which began yesterday with victories for New Zealand and West Indies in Guyana, will want similarly large crowds as the tournament progresses.

But not so much for the money to be made at the gate. Most of all, organisers want large crowds for the excitement value and atmosphere it provides for the hundreds of millions-strong television audiences around the world.

That’s where the real money is made. Twinned to regional music, dance and culture, those television pictures beamed from the Caribbean to the wider world would become irresistible.

The ill-fated Stanford Twenty20 showed the possibilities. The Indian Premier League — which unfortunately has also been hit by allegations of financial wrongdoing — has surely ended any argument as regards Twenty20 cricket as a television product.

But of course, it’s not only cricket that can provide immense television-based value added for the Caribbean. As Mr Bryan pointed out, Jamaica and the wider region, blessed as they are with more mega-stars in track athletics than at any time in their history should now be cashing in. Why indeed should we be watching as our athletes parade on the European professional circuit without developing our own equivalent?

To quote Mr Bryan, “Imagine if (Usain) Bolt, Asafa (Powell), the (Jamaican) 100m women’s stars, the Trinidadians, the Cubans were all to be involved, what an attraction that would be to the rest of the world…”

The thought boggles the mind. It’s something regional track and field authorities and governments should be seriously contemplating, even as we watch the unfolding of the seventh staging of the Jamaica International Invitational at the National Stadium tonight.