By Rawle Toney
Guyana has sent in its bid to host matches during the 20/20 World Cup competition which will be held for the first time in the Caribbean in 2010.
This disclosure was made by Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony yesterday.
According to Dr. Anthony, Guyana’s bid was taken directly to the West Indies Cricket Board by the Permanent Secretary Keith Booker last Monday, a day before the bid’s deadline.
He informed that Guyana was the first bidder and that only three venues across the Caribbean would be used.
The bid, Dr. Anthony said, was put together by the same committee who worked during last year’s Cricket World Cup (CWC) and was signed by His Excellency President Bharrat Jagdeo.
- Keith Booker
“When we hosted CWC we also said that we will be looking at hosting other international events as well as it relates to cricket and I think we have a very strong bid and if the criteria are the same for what was used for hosting CWC, then we stand a very good chance, but we have to wait and see,” Dr. Anthony said.
“During the CWC when some countries in the Caribbean were struggling to have attendance during that period, we were able to have very good turn outs at the stadium. Apart from the finals, we also had one of the largest crowds in the tournament with the Sri Lanka/West Indies match attracting 12,250 people which was very good,” said Anthony.
He mentioned that all the necessary infrastructure were already in place including proper hotels as several new hotels were constructed last year for CWC while the other established ones had undergone some amount of rehabilitation works during that period.
The tournament was originally scheduled to be an ICC Champions Trophy one but the board of the ICC agreed it would switch to the shorter format.
It will take place between April 23 and May 9 2010 and will be staged at three venues to be chosen by the board of the ICC in January next year following nominations from the WICB
The move to host the 20/20 showpiece in the Caribbean follows last year’s staging of one-day crickets World Cup in the region an event roundly criticised for lacking a West Indian flavour.
The Cricket World Cup was also dogged by small attendances mainly after key draw cards India and Pakistan were shockingly knocked out in the first round.