ICC officials visit Toronto to start final preparations for ICC Trophy

Clive Hitchcock, ICC Event Manager for ICC Trophy 2001 will follow Mike Corley into Toronto for a follow-up series of meetings with the CCA and members of the '01 Committee and venue managers. Mike Corley, Ground Consultant to the CCA and the ICC recently paid his first visit to Canada to assess and to start final preparations on the grass wickets for the ICC Trophy 2001. Mike Corley who was also the Ground Consultant for IMG/TWI's Sahara Cup series of Games between Pakistan and India was also responsible for the installation and maintenance of wickets at Ajax, Maple Leaf C.C., G. Ross Lord and Sunnybrook and at Malton C.C's Wildwood Park in Mississauga.

The University of Guelph's internationally renowned Turfgrass Institute has provided invaluable technical support and assistance. Special thanks must also go the municipalities of Mississauga, Toronto, Ajax and King City for their outstanding previous and for their future support.

The staging of the largest cricket tournament in the world with 24 countries will set the stage for the further rapid development of Canadian and Americas cricket. Of course three of the participating countries will qualify to take part in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. The 800 million people in the Americas are a natural base of support for this great game. Can cricket supplant or successfully compete with Olympic sports like soccer, track and field and basketball? We can and we must do so in the shortest possible timeframe. The alternative is to face even more competition with other sports entities like NHL Hockey which are widely televised and emerging sports like ringette. We must generate more market exposure.