Guyana was yesterday officially declared a host venue for the International Cricket Council’s Under-19 men’s World Cup, which will make it the only country in the West Indies to host all four World Cups held in the Caribbean. This announcement was made by tournament Director, Fawwaz Baksh during a simple but significant ceremony at the National Stadium, Providence, which along with the Everest Cricket Club and Georgetown Cricket Club will host matches for the tournament.
The Enmore Community Centre, Demerara Cricket Club and Eve Leary Ground will host practice sessions.
Guyana will host teams such as India, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, Sri Lanka, Scotland, Uganda and West Indies. Teams will begin arriving as early as January 2 with the first match set for January 9 and the last on January 15. Some 64 games will be cramped into 28 days with 16 teams across four countries.
According to ICC event manager, Benjamin Leaver, there is a certain kind of vibe associated with hosting matches in the Caribbean and Guyana, with the focus being on the future stars of the game this time.
“Obviously, Guyana and the West Indies have a strong success of hosting cricket World Cups with the Men’s T20 [and 50-over], Women’s T20 and now the under-19 World Cup. It’s an event where we see the future stars of our game, it’s a dynamic event where we get to showcase to those players what the world class level looks like. They will be participating in venues such as this where superstars that have been before would have played on and that is where we want to push the game,” he said.
Leaver added, “The beauty of the under-19 World Cup is not only those superstars that would continue on but it showcases the development of our game. Uganda will be participating in the ICC event for the first time at the under-19 level following the footsteps of Japan and Nigeria.”
Minister of Sports, Charles Ramson jr. indicated that some US$ three million is projected to be injected into the local economy by virtue of this tournament through the numerous streams, including hotels which accounts for about a third of that figure.
He said that in relation to government’s investment, at least $5M would have been given to some of these venues to develop with works currently ongoing.
He recalled the likes of Shimron Hetmyer, Keemo Paul and Assaud Fuddadin as just a few Guyanese who have come through previous under-19 World Cups and done well.
