Warner Park becomes the newest Test venue

Warner Park has become the newest international venue and will stage a Test and a one-dayer when India tour West Indies next year. While it has never hosted international matches, Warner Park has previously hosted international teams, since it was a regular stop for warm-up matches for visiting sides to the Caribbean.

Ken Gordon, the new president of the West Indies Cricket Board, delivered the good news to St Kitts & Nevis Prime Minister and Minister of Sports, Dr Denzil Douglas, when he paid a courtesy call on Friday.

"St Kitts & Nevis will be holding its first one-day international on May 24 next year, and its first Test on June 22, so the federation of St Kitts & Nevis has now emerged into one of the international cricket venues of the world, and congratulations are in order," Gordon told a news briefing.

Gordon admitted that the announcement of the two international matches at Warner Park was being made prematurely, although the formal announcement would have been made after ratification following a WICB directors' meeting on Sunday in Antigua.

Douglas, the elated prime minister, indicated that the staging of the two international matches was further justification for his government's decision to upgrade Warner Park, and put forward the Federation to host matches in the 2007 ICC World Cup in the Caribbean. "The infrastructural development, the organisation, and the planning that we are doing for 2007 has landed us these very important and historical first international matches."