Idea 470 of 500. Cluster 25: Sport and the cricket economy
Marathon and trail-running events in the hills and the ancient cities, with the medal worth keeping
The mechanism, from the book
The country's best-known export is cricket, and little of the business around it is built at home.
Every idea in cluster 25 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Map a half-marathon route in one ancient city, or a trail route in the hills, then walk it yourself and time it. Design the medal first, as an object worth keeping, and get a quote for 200 of them from a local brass or metal craftsman. Post the route and the medal to 2 or 3 running clubs abroad and ask for pre-registrations. The count of names at a stated fee is your answer.
- Who pays first
- A runner abroad who collects destination races and will pay the entry fee, the flight and a week's stay for a course nobody else offers.
- What leaves today
- The island's ruins and hills are unpriced as a race course, and the entry fees, the medals and the race-week spending go to events elsewhere.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. ThreeWhat We Have Already Built
Cricket among the things Sri Lankans have built
More from cluster 25
- 466Cricket academies for the children of Sri Lankans abroad and the world's, in the school holidays
- 467Coaching exports: Sri Lankan coaches contracted to clubs abroad through one agency
- 468Cricket tourism packages built around the international calendar and the domestic grounds
- 469Surf competitions on the east coast on the world calendar
- 471Sports-physio and rehabilitation clinics serving the touring teams and the visitors
- 472Equipment manufacturing: bats, balls and kit, which India does and we do not
Idea 470 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.