World Cup? What World Cup? For all the hope that the first staging in the Caribbean of cricket's biggest tournament would create a revival of interest in the sport around the West Indies, the reality is that most locals are failing to embrace the event.

Guyana, it is true, lies at the southern end of the region and is tied to South American culture as well as to the Caribbean's, but walk around the streets, go into bars, restaurants or hotels, and it isn't obvious that there is a major global sporting event going on in the region.

Around the public areas of the hotel which houses the four teams playing the Super Eight matches in Guyana, there was not one television screening the match between the hosts and New Zealand today, a match that was crucial to West Indian hopes of making the semi-finals and a game which they lost. Taxi drivers seem more interested in testing the eardrums of their passengers with raggae music than tuning into commentary of the latest game.

This apparent disinterest might have had something to do with the slow start to the tournament, with many group matches involving the less attractive minor sides, but the situation was scarcely different in three Super Eight matches that have now been played. The tournament is past its midpoint - the West Indies-New Zealand contest was the 27th fixture out of an overall total of 51 - and it is hard to imagine the trend is going to change.

If it doesn't, the final verdict on the tournament, at least as far as rejuvenating West Indian cricket is concerned, could be that it was an immense disappointment and an opportunity missed.

It is now ten years since Australia deprived West Indies of their cherished mantle as the world's most powerful cricket team, one they had held for 15 years. Since then the team has experienced countless humiliations, including 5-0 Test series defeats to Australia and South Africa, a 4-0 trouncing by England, and losing to Kenya in the 1996 World Cup.

A strong performance by Brian Lara's team and a generation of youngsters could have been inspired to take up the game. But in Antigua in the last three days, West Indies have played two Super Eight matches against Australia and New Zealand and the size of both crowds was distinctly underwhelming.

Lara expressed his dissatisfaction and it may be no coincidence that his team won the three group matches they played in Jamaica, where attendances were stronger. Quite healthy crowds turned up to a familiar stadium that was relatively easy for spectators to reach.

Now, the host team is spending four weeks playing seven matches in four regions - Antigua, Guyana, Grenada and Barbados - and the grounds in Antigua and Guyana are both new builds in out-of-town locations. For spectators to get to them is both difficult and expensive - and even when they have got to the ground they face paying relatively high prices for even the cheapest tickets.

The early evidence is that in Antigua the locals aren't prepared to give up their time or money to go and watch even their own team. It may be significant that no cricketer from Antigua is in the 15-man West Indies World Cup squad, because loyalty to one's own region often comes before loyalty to, or identity with, the West Indies as a whole.

If this pattern is repeated when the show moves on to Grenada and Barbados, then the missionary purpose of the tournament may have failed. The international cricket arena was once guaranteed to bring the whole of the West Indies together. Perhaps not any more.