The thought of Sir Vivian Richards smashing a four to the boundary of the National Sports Centre off the bowling of, say, Sir Richard Hadlee, or of Joel Garner shattering Mike Gatting?s middle stump again, is enough to quicken the hearts of any true cricket fan.

At least, it would be if this was 1985, when these legendary players were in their prime. Even today, it would be fun to see these albeit heavier and slower stars of yesteryear recapture some of the magic of their playing days, while demonstrating the on-field competition and off-field camaraderie that makes cricket special.

That is the promise of the 20-20 masters cricket competition being planned for Bermuda next year. But is it worth $1 million to the taxpayer? The answer to that question is surely no. It will be argued that the money spent will be repaid both in visitors to the Island and in exposure around the world.

Well, we will see. Bermuda has hosted enough of these kinds of good but not great events ? the XL Bermuda Open (tennis), the Gillette golf tournaments, the World Rugby Classic, International Triathlon events and so on ? to know the truth.

You don?t get vast crowds of visitors coming and you don?t get that much TV exposure either. To be sure, you might get some late night coverage on a sports network, but the Olympics or the football World Cup, this is not.

There are sports events that have become established, that have built a loyal following and that have gained Bermuda wide recognition at the same that they have injected money into tourism.

Most of them have been to some degree home-grown, rather than the kind of flat and bland made-for-TV events that fill TV screens in the dog days of summer to shrinking audiences of couch potatoes whose choices are limited to these or reruns of second-rate movies.

Hence, the Newport-Bermuda Race is an established fixture on the ocean racing circuit. The World Rugby Classic has, from humble beginnings, grown into a recognised fixture although it must be said that the number of true former stars who come out for it are never as many as hoped.

On a different note, the Bermuda International Film Festival is quietly establishing itself as a respected film festival.

To be sure, these events struggle to draw crowds that reflect the Island?s diversity in the way that the cricket festival might and the Bermuda Music Festival would if the tickets weren?t so expensive and the weather wasn?t so dicey.

On the other hand, they don?t cost the Government $1 million to stage, or even the $750,000 in cash and $250,000 in services being handed over to the organisers.

That?s a lot of money for an event which:

1. Won?t get much attention worldwide;

2. Won?t draw many visitors to the Island, even if the local crowds are large.

It is also a lot of money that could have been spent on sports development, whether for cricket or otherwise, or on social programmes that are crying out for this kind of help.

Bermuda?s own national cricket team, which is now heading to Ireland to vie for a place in the cricket World Cup, could have taken some of that money to enable its squad to take a leave of absence from work to prepare like professionals for the ICC Trophy.

The money could have been spent to build homes for Bermudians scrambling to find somewhere to live. It could have been used to set up an endowment for two or three university scholarships for deserving Bermudians who would not otherwise be able to go abroad.

The list is endless.

Somehow, the idea of using the money so that a group of retired cricketers can come for a few matches just doesn?t seem to be that much of a priority.

This newspaper hopes it is wrong about this. Maybe the tournament will draw thousands of visitors and will be a springboard for worldwide television exposure that will do for tourism what Old Navy has done for Bermuda shorts. Perhaps, over time, it will grow into a worldwide phenomenon.

But if it does not work out that way, just remember what the money could have been used for.