Sports Minister confident Guyana will be ready for CWC
• Carib Beer, KFC Cup matches fixed for Providence Stadium
By Sean Devers
Kaieteur News
November 25, 2006
Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports Dr. Frank Anthony yesterday expressed confidence that Guyana will be ready to host six Super Eight matches in next year's International Cricket Council Cricket World Cup (ICC CWC) March 28-April 9.
The Minister, who is also the Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) of CWC, told the media that the LOC is working hard to ensure Guyana meet the ICC's deadlines. Dr Anthony was speaking at a media briefing at the LOC office.
Head of the LOC's Cricket Operations sub-committee, Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) President Chetram Singh and LOC's Cricket Operations Manager Clyde Duncan also updated the media on the cricket operations for the mega event, which officially commences on March 11 in Jamaica with the opening ceremony.
Singh said while he did not think the stadium will be match ready by mid-January as promised, he was confident that it will be ready to host the world cup. Singh said Guyana's fourth round Carib Beer regional first-class cricket match from January 28-31 and their final two preliminary KFC Cup one-day encounters (Feb 2 & 10) have been scheduled for the stadium.
“These games will be used as a dry-run for the world cup matches and by then almost everything should be in place,” Singh informed. Singh said the work of the Cricket Operations Committee will be the most visible when the event starts.
This committee is responsible for the preparedness of the match and practice venues, receiving the teams at the airport, internal transpiration of the players among several other cricket related duties.
Minister Anthony informed that he attended an LOC meeting on Wednesday and disclosed that while no date has been fixed as yet for the formal opening of the Stadium, a schedule of critical things to be completed will be unveiled 100 days before Guyana host its match. He also assured that the minor infrastructural adjustments to be done at the Providence stadium along with the completion of the practice and match pitches and outfield will not cost the Guyana Government more than what was budgeted for originally.
Minister Anthony said that since the pitches and field preparation is the main worry, a special high level committee has been set up to deal with that issue. The committee will be headed by Chetram Singh and include Clyde Duncan, Norman McLean, Bish Panday, Neil Kumar and Jeff Frazer. “The practice pitches is far from being completed and this is a major concern for the LOC,” Singh said.
He also added that the ICC venue inspection team, which visited the facility last week, reported that the standard of the outfield was unsatisfactory since the sand content was too high. Singh also claimed that when CWC2007's Venue Development Director Donald Lockerbie told the media that the pitch and outfield at the stadium had not reached the ICC standards, he was talking about the practice pitches at the venue and not the match pitch.
According to Singh, while the Everest pitch (a practice venue) was not hard enough, the pitch at Bourda (the other practice venue) passed the ICC requirements. He also indicated that from the testing done with the Clegg Hammer, the pitch at Providence had as much bounce as the pitch at Kensinton Oval, judging from the readings of the testing equipment.
“ Guyana 's Cricket World Cup 2007 Stadium at Providence on the East Bank of Demerara will be ready to host practice matches by March 2006 and is guaranteed to be flood-free” Valmiki Kempadoo, Managing Director of Trinidadian Company TERAFORMA, which has been contracted by the Guyana Government to prepare the pitch and outfield, had guaranteed. TERAFORMA is scheduled to return to Guyana on Tuesday to resume work at the stadium.
The Minister pointed out that the Ministry of Public Works will soon begin work on the perimeter drainage system at Everest, reportedly the primary reason for the excess moisture content in the pitch at that venue. While a lot more works has to be done on the outfield at Providence , the drainage system was described as ‘excellent' after an LOC team inspected the ground after a heavy shower this week.
However, the stadium's superb drainage system has been blamed as a reason for the ground being behind schedule since it is not ‘holding' enough water to facilitate the required growth of grass to hold the surface together.
It was pointed out that a lot of soaking and rolling has to be done to make the surface more solid. It was also disclosed that the ‘ground equipment' is expected to arrive in Guyana by December 12, while Duncan said that the nine-ton roller (needed to periodically roll the ground and pitch) will be available to the ground staff when required.
HOTELS and TRANSPORTATION
Managing Director and CEO of the International Cricket Council 2007 Cricket World Cup Chris Dehring said last week, that the completion of the Buddy's International Hotel near the stadium, was critical to Guyana 's successful staging of the world cup since the ICC had already contracted rooms for the officials from the Guyana Government.
Yesterday Minister Anthony echoed those sentiments and added that because the completion of what is expected to be a 250-room four-star hotel is now of a national interest, the Government has been involved in discussions with the Hotel's owner who has promised to meet the deadline for completion.
“Without those rooms, we will not be able to meet our accommodation arrangement with the ICC. We visited the Hotel on Thursday and we are generally pleased with the level of work we have seen, especially since the contractors are working day and night now,” Minister Anthony said.
Four hundred and twenty-nine Hotel rooms are needed by the LOC but according to them this is not a worry at all. “We have checked several hotels of all categories and we have found that most of them are adding rooms and improving their accommodation and we are very satisfied so far,” Minister Anthony declared.
He added the request for the Bed and Breakfast plan is pilling up, noting that 250 persons have so far registered 883 rooms.
Approximately 2,500 rooms are needed for this programme and those interested in providing accommodation for visitors at their homes should call the LOC office at 225-9626 or 226-2052 for more information. Registration for the Bed and Breakfast programme has been extended to the end of January.
Homes in Grove Village on the East Bank of Demerara has the highest percentage of registration while Diamond East Bank, South Ruimveldt, Lodge and Kitty are among the main areas where people have shown interest in this type of accommodation which is new to Guyana.
Minister Anthony said that the names of those registered for the Bed and Breakfast programme will be kept in the LOC's date base which will be used to inform visitors of their options when they arrive here. “We will just provide the names of those approved from this programme but the actual financial and personal arrangement will be done between the home owners and the visitors,” The LOC Chairman pointed out.
Persons who wish to make available their SUV's, Busses and other types of vehicles to visitors during the world cup period can make contact with the LOC before the end of January to talk with those in charge of transportation for the big event.
TICKETING
The LOC office in Middle Street Georgetown has extended their hours of business with the increase of applications for tickets during phase two of the ticketing process.
The office will now be opened from 08:00hrs-17:00hrs from Monday to Friday and will now be opened on Saturdays from 09:00hrs to 14:00hrs.
The second phase ends on November 30 and business entities are reminded that Co-operate packages (where more than four tickets per match can be bought for by a company for its employers) can no longer be purchased after this month end.
It was disclosed that a large percentage of applications for tickets have also come from Guyana .
TRAINING
Training in several areas related to the world cup has already began and it was disclosed that the Guyana Tourism Authority is conduction training courses in various areas while the LOC will be doing specialized training for security from trained personnel.
The volunteers will also be involved in ‘job specific training' in March of next year while 350 volunteers will be exposed to the training of trainers programme as preparation for the world cup intensifies. The local volunteers received excellent marks from the ICC venue assessment team which visited Guyana last week.
Thousand of visitors are expected here for the CWC and a common Visa will be issued for the first time in Caribbean travel. Once someone enters any of the world cup destinations they will not be required to present another Visa for any of their other stops in any other world cup venue.
This is the first time that the West Indies, who reached the finals in the first three World Cups in 1975, 1979 and 1983, will host the prestigious tournament.