World Cup Out of Tune With Taiwan Sovereignty

World Cup out of tune with Taiwan sovereignty

Taiwan looks like becoming the unexpected loser at the Cricket World Cup over the next month or so. The island will not be sending a team to the tournament, but it has discovered that its future as a distinct entity from China is being jeopardised by the political impact of the tournament.

The largest bloc of the 24 nations that continue to recognise Taiwan - whose president, Chen Shui-bian, sparked a protest from the mainland when on Sunday he reasserted that his "is a sovereign, independent country" - is found in the West Indies and Gulf of Mexico. It includes host nations St Kitts & Nevis and St Vincent and the Grenadines - so the World Cup has become a geopolitical battleground.

Chinese construction and development grants have ensured the tournament will be staged successfully; without the assistance of hundreds of Chinese construction workers in Antigua, Grenada and Jamaica and China's near-£70m investment in stadiums, the World Cup could not have been held.

Although the refurbishment of St Kitts & Nevis's Warner Park Stadium into a 10,000-seat arena received key funding from Taiwan, the island's influence in the region is slipping. Grenada had to hand back a £10m loan to a Taiwanese bank after receiving £20m in Chinese aid to build its stadium. Imagine the embarrassment, then, when a Grenadian band played the Taiwanese national anthem to China's ambassador at the official handover of the project.

ECB advice on the cards

The England and Wales Cricket Board, in association with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, has launched a downloadable information card for fans travelling to the World Cup. The card, aimed at providing the government's most up-to-date travel advice for the region, provides a useful reference of telephone numbers for those mislaying their passports - and it details where British mobiles and cash machines will not work.

FA suffer Dutch clogging

The FA Trophy semi-final ties between Grays Athletic and Stevenage Borough and Kidderminster Harriers and Northwich Victoria have more at stake than any such fixtures in the past. The teams have the chance to be the first to play at the new Wembley, seven days before the FA Cup final on May 19. The Football Association is expected to announce today or on Monday that the stadium is ready to host events, after the fire-alarm system gained its safety certificate yesterday. But the FA's PR thunder was stolen on the same day by the Dutch football federation, which said the Under-21 match between England and Italy would be staged at Wembley on March 24; Holland is providing the referee.