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BARBADOS – Despite a few areas of concern regarding roof works at Kensington Oval, the ICC Venue Team reflected a good and encouraging state of progress for the work which Barbados’ Local Organising Committee (LOC) has produced across all venues, with just 16 weeks left before the start of the tournament.

Chris Dehring, CWC 2007’s Managing Director & CEO used a limited-overs cricket analogy as he addressed a press conference after last Wednesday’s (November 15) tour: “We are in the final overs of a match, chasing a big score.”

Sharing the spotlight with Chris DeCaires, the Chairman of the Barbados LOC Board, Dehring said “everyone will be going full tilt from now on” and lauded what he termed “the tremendous amount of work the Chairman and his LOC have obviously put in to reach this stage”.

DeCaires echoed Dehring’s sentiments and affirmed that “the LOC, management and the contractors will be working flat out…this is key in the lead-up to the Event”.

Each of the various stakeholders for ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 toured the venues in Barbados and was sufficiently satisfied with what they saw. These stakeholders covered the key areas of Media & Broadcast, Pitch & Field, Cricket Operations, Sponsors, Venue Development and the Event Authority – the International Cricket Council (ICC).

At Kensington Oval, the Venue Team toured the entire facility including the Coppin, Cozier & Short Media Centre, the Garfield Sobers Players’ Pavilion and the new Worrell, Weekes & Walcott Stand. The Sports Agronomy Team conducted pitch-and-field testing at Kensington Oval and inspected the practice grounds at Police Sports Club and Windward Sports Club.

Then tour concluded at the 3Ws Oval on the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, where four Warm-up matches will be played March 5-9, 2007. Barbados also hosts six Super 8 matches from April 11-21 and the CWC Final on April 28.

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Managing Director & CEO of ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 Inc., Chris Dehring, has pleaded with Caribbean airlines to ensure their operations are “world-class standard” in order for next year’s Event to be a success.

This statement comes in the wake of several members of the ICC Venue Tour arriving in Grenada this morning without their luggage.

The team landed in the Spice Isle on Caribbean Star early this morning from Trinidad, where they were in-transit overnight after completing the Guyana leg of the tour yesterday, only to discover that a significant portion of their baggage was missing.

Among the items left behind was key equipment used to test pitches and outfields and other important equipment belonging to the Global Cricket Corporation (GCC), which was needed to conduct the venue assessment.

However, with the assistance of the Government of Grenada Protocol Office, the luggage was sent to Grenada on a flight later in the morning and quickly despatched to the Venue Tour party.

Still, Dehring stressed the crux of the matter should not be overlooked.

“Here we are, on the third day of the tour, with this most embarrassing example of one of the pivotal concerns which has been repeatedly expressed – and CWC and, more importantly the entire Caribbean, has been let down. It’s extremely disappointing since it caused the team to lose valuable time in Grenada,” he added.

“The ICC and its partners are making their final and crucial assessment of whether the Caribbean is capable of and ready to host the Cricket World Cup to world-class standards. This is not what we want them – or for that matter anyone attending Cricket World Cup next year – to remember about the Caribbean.”

“The airline authorities have been on notice for a long time that this very important tour would be taking place and have been told how much depends on all of us raising our game and showing that the region can deliver in all areas, not just in building fantastic stadia.”

The CWC Managing Director said “such occurrences exemplify the challenges and why we need everyone in every service to focus individually and collectively on what we have to deliver”.

“The Governments and people of the Caribbean have sacrificed a lot for the opportunity to host this tournament and for anyone to operate in a manner that would put this project at risk is reckless. I have said before – and I say it again now – failure is not an option.

“The success of this Event will depend on everyone, including regional service providers playing their part in a diligent, meticulous and timely fashion,” noted Dehring, who has been in the vanguard of the region’s Cricket World Cup quest for the past decade.

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The Guernsey Cricket Board is delighted to announce that it has entered into a Development Partnership Agreement with Sussex CCC, winners of the 2006 Liverpool Victoria County Championship and of the 2006 C&G Trophy.

The Agreement will provide Guernsey with many benefits, including regular coaching visits from the Sussex Professional Coaching Staff, reciprocal visits to the Sussex Academy, advice from the Sussex Academy on developing Guernsey’s own National Academy and opportunities for Guernsey’s age group sides to play regularly against the Sussex district representative age group sides.

With this ongoing relationship, Sussex CCC will be able to identify any young cricketers with the potential to make a living out of professional county cricket and to represent the county in age group county cricket.

David Piesing, Chairman of the Guernsey Cricket Board, said:  “Guernsey cricket has high aspirations to be successful in international cricket and we will benefit enormously from the wisdom and experience that Sussex can pass on to us. This will help us to create a sustainable development infrastructure for our leading players in all age groups to achieve their full potential.

Exposing our elite players and age group sides to regular competition of a high standard on the mainland backed up with monthly winter visits by Sussex Academy coaches can only help to accelerate the development of those players, as well as aid the development of our own coaches.  English county cricket provides the sole opportunity for players from the European region to take up a professional career in the game and we are already seeing a stream of Irish, Scottish, Dutch and Danish cricketers securing English county contracts.  Guernsey has already produced one home-grown county cricketer in Lee Savident at Hampshire, and hopefully Tim Ravenscroft is already close to following in Lee’s footsteps.  This is first-hand evidence that coming from a small island need not be an obstacle to a professional cricket career if the talent exists and if it can be properly developed at the key age groups.”

Keith Greenfield, Sussex Cricket Performance Manager added, ‘Sussex CCC and the Guernsey Cricket Board have enjoyed a good relationship for a number of years and we are delighted to further strengthen it with this new and exciting initiative.   The aim of Sussex has always been to promote cricket, to ensure a thriving future and this agreement will definitely go towards this.  And hopefully the partnership between us will enable Guernsey youngsters to potentially fulfil a career in first class-cricket with Sussex or become a very successful player in enabling Guernsey cricket to progress up the International Cricket ladder.’

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