Minster of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr. Frank Anthony yesterday stated that Guyana was treated unfairly by being deprived of four of the 10 matches requested for the International Cricket Council (ICC) Twenty20 World Cup tournament which takes place next year in the Caribbean.
Dr. Anthony, along with acting president of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Bissondial Singh, yesterday expressed their disappointment at a press conference held in the boardroom of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport.
It was stated at yesterday’s press conference that Guyana had bargained to stage some 10 matches but at the launching of the ICC World Twenty20 on Saturday evening at the Beausejour Stadium in St. Lucia, this country was only allotted six matches according to the tournament schedule released.
Dr. Anthony said that each host venue was to have 10 matches adding that Guyana was also promised one of the semi-final matches.
“We also noticed that the level of matches was not what we expected because we were to have a few super eight matches but when it was revealed at the launching it only had preliminary round matches.
“What was shocking was in the lead up to the launching of the ICC Twenty20 tournament, there was a sudden drop of communication between Guyana and the ICC team,” Dr. Anthony said.
He also stated that Guyana had received previous match schedules prior to the launching only for the ICC to tell them to disregard those fixtures afterwards.
Dr. Anthony, however, stated that Guyana had already begun preparing for the 10 matches but had not completely followed through because of the lack of communication with the ICC team.
Venues such as the Police Sports Club Ground, Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) Ground and Everest Cricket Club Ground were named as practice venues.
“Guyana proved itself in the 2007 World Cup in terms of logistics where people were able to enter and exit the country without any problem while we proved that security was adequate, parking around and inside the stadium was easy and also we had hotels opened to accommodate guests so I don’t think it is an issue that involves anything as such that would cause us to not be capable of hosting the matches,” he said.
Singh stated at the press brief that the GCB was surprised when the final schedule was revealed on Saturday.
“Being a stakeholder we want to know why we were not involved in the final planning of the schedule among other things,” Singh said.
“When the ICC team visited last week, I personally gave them a tour of the venues and I think we passed with flying colours. One of the technical men stated that our venue was one of the best venues so it could not be a fact of an improper venue that caused the shifting of matches,” he reasoned.
Dr. Anthony said he believes that all the countries should have been able to sit down and discuss whether they were comfortable with the final programme before it was made public.
