Vice-president of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Alvin Johnson told Stabroek Sports that Guyana has proven their capabilities to host mega events, following a Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) press release which stated that Guyana, Barbados and St. Lucia were chosen as host venues for the ICC 2010 Twenty/20 World Cup.
“We have proven that we are capable of hosting these mega events. We first hosted the International Cricket Council (ICC) 2007 World Cup, followed by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) 2007 Regional KFC championships preliminary round and its 2008 President’s Cup in its entirety.”
Johnson further stated: ”This goes to show that we have the facilities in place and the man power to host events of such a magnitude and do so efficiently and successfully. This would have caused the WICB to place their backings on Guyana’s proposal for the tournament.”
Johnson, who is the president of the Essequibo Cricket Board (ECB) and is in charge of the stewardship of the GCB in the absence of its president Chetram Singh and is also a school principal by profession, further told Stabroek Sports that this tournament can help to boost Guyana’s cricket in more ways than one.
“The hosting of this tournament can help Guyana’s cricket in more ways than one, most importantly at the administrative level and I am hoping that the hosting of this tournament would help resolve some of the issues that have been occurring recently.”
He said also that the GCB elections will be held early in 2009 and by virtue of this tournament being played in 2010, it has caught whoever is at the helm of the GCB whether it is the present president Chetram Singh or a new president in the middle of their term.
“Such a person would have to understand the importance of undertaking the responsibility of hosting a tournament of such a magnitude, bearing in mind our track record at hosting such tournaments,” Johnson added.
While noting what needs to be done at the administrative level of the GCB, Johnson also stated that the successful hosting of the tournament does not depend on the GCB alone but the nation as a whole.
“We did a lot of work for the ICC 2007 World Cup and according to my interpretation of the word development, it means to build on, and therefore we should be building on the developments that took place for that tournament and not start afresh.”
“It is with this in mind that I call on the nation as a whole to come together and let’s make the hosting of this tournament a memorable one, just as we did with the ICC 2007 World Cup. After all, cricket is our game,” said Johnson.
According to the CMC report, the organizers of the 2010 ICC World Twenty/20 Championship in the Caribbean have nominated Barbados, Guyana and St. Lucia to host matches in the competition while ICC’s inspectors are likely to rubber-stamp the decision of the organizing committee to stage the matches in the venues selected.
They will be visiting St. Lucia on Monday before travelling to St. Kitts & Nevis on Tuesday and Guyana on Wednesday before ending their trip in Barbados on Thursday.
