The benefits of hosting the World Cup in the West Indies extend far beyond the boundary ropes, says former Windies pacer Ian Bishop.

The Trinidadian says hosting the third largest sporting event in the world dispels a belief that infrastructures in the Caribbean are not capable of taking on a massive undertaking such as hosting the World Cup, and is living proof of what can be achieved in the region.

“For me, I think there are two facets for hosting the World Cup here. One is that Caribbean people, in particular Trinidad and Tobago, have the opportunity to show the rest of the world that we do have the ability to host a world class tournament,” Bishop said.

“This is vitally important because everyone looks at the Caribbean as Third World and not capable of building stadiums and things like that to host a major event. And I think you can tell this from all of the negative press that we’ve had leading up the World Cup.”

Bishop said West Indian cricket also stands to prosper from hosting a first World Cup.

“The other thing is that West Indian cricket has been so off form over a long period of time that to do well in this tournament would be a catalyst for cricket; not only in the region, but I think world-wide as well,” he said.

And with the tournament hosts having already secured passage to the next round, Bishop seems generally satisfied with the West Indies’ recent performances against Pakistan and Zimbabwe.

“I think their World Cup campaign has gone reasonably well so far. They played very well against Pakistan and then so so against Zimbabwe,” he said.

Former West Indies skipper Clive Lloyd, no stranger to Bermuda, has every bit of confidence in the team he led to World Cup glory in 1975 and 1979.

“We have all the ingredients to be a top team. It is just a matter of putting it all together a bit more often,” he told The Royal Gazette.

“People didn’t expect us to get to the final of the ICC Champions Trophy, but we got there and just faltered in the end. We are probably one of the best one-day sides in the world, and have shown that we can be professional and intelligent in our play. And once we get everything together, we’ll beat anybody.”