CWC official declares Verification Tour a success

ICC World Cup West Indies 2007 (ICC CWC WI 2007) officials have declared the recently concluded Verification Tour of venues bidding to host CWC 2007 matches a success.

This assessment comes from Venue Development Director, ICC CWC WI 2007 Inc, Donald Lockerbie, who reported: "The second week of the tour by the Venue Assessment Team, ICC and CWC officials was as satisfying and fulfilling as our first week."

From May 24 to 29, the first half of the verification tour was to St. Lucia, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Barbados. Then from June 7 to 13, the VAT team ventured to the USA, Antigua & Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Jamaica and concluded in Bermuda.

While the VAT met with the Local Bid Committees and their teams, Managing Director and CEO of the CWC 2007 Inc, Chris Dehring had meetings with Heads of Government, members of Cabinet and other officials as well as the media in keeping with the emphasis being placed by CWC 2007 on dialogue and relationship building with regional governments and the media.

"The verification tour helped the team to highlight the strengths of each country as well as also understand the challenges each venue faces," said Lockerbie.

"CWC 2007 Inc. management was also able to demonstrate to the VAT and ICC observers on the tour the resource assets of the region and the significant buy-in across the region for the Host Venue Selection Process," added Lockerbie.

The Venue Development Director noted that he was impressed by the efforts of the various territories and compared it to the efforts of South Africa, the last country to host the Cricket World Cup.

"We can safely say that the work done by the Local Bid Committees to prepare themselves for the visit of the VAT shows that CWC 2007 is in very competent hands in each territory and the information we were able to glean from the process assures us that we are on target to meet the goal of being ahead of where South Africa was with 35 months to go before their tournament."

Next on the VAT agenda is the submission of its technical report on the venues and briefing of the CWC 2007 Management and Board of Directors on June 24 and 25 in Barbados. Chris Dehring and Lockerbie will also present to the board and the ICC their response to the VAT Report and final recommendation to the board. The board will then develop its recommendations for the eight bid finalists, which will be submitted to the ICC for approval. The ICC will announce the countries hosting CWC 2007 matches on or around July 4.

On July 12, the Board of Directors and ICC will decide on the award of matches, which will be announced the following day, July 13, in a live radio and television broadcast from Jamaica, where the ICC CWC 2007 Headquarters is located. The ceremony will take place at the Ritz Carlton, Montego Bay, Jamaica.