TT may incur penalty for lateness

BRIDGETOWN: The Bahamas withdrew, Trinidad and Tobago were late, but ten other countries have made formal offers to host matches in the ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007. When the deadline time of 7.30 pm arrived on Thursday, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bermuda, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts/Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and the United States were the countries that submitted their offer documents to the accounting firm of Pricewater-houseCoopers in Barbados.  Trinidad and Tobago, however, submitted their documents almost one and a half hours after the deadline, but 2007 World Cup officials shed no light about if they would incur a penalty.

“All elements of the submissions including time of delivery, completeness and content will now be considered by the venue assessment team, comprising an independent group of world games experts headed by the global sports marketing company, IMG,” Chris Dehring, the managing director of ICC CWC WI 2007, said on the CMC Radio Sports programme yesterday. He added: “We are extremely pleased that so many countries have made themselves available to share with the WICB and CWC 2007, the responsibility of hosting this mammoth event. “This response by the national cricket associations and their respective Governments gives us tremendous confidence to collectively stage a successful Cricket World Cup in 2007.”

The CWC 2007 host venues are scheduled to be announced on July 2 with the award of matches set for July 12. News had emerged late on Thursday in Port-of-Spain that TT did not make a specific bid to stage any World Cup matches, but would take any for which other countries had not bid. The venue assessment team, alongside representatives of the International Cricket Council and CWC 2007, will also visit each bidding country between May 24 and June 7 to inspect the facilities and clarify elements of the bid submissions. The venue assessment team will then make their recommendations based solely on technical merit to the board of directors of CWC 2007, who will decide the host venues and match awards, subject to the approval of the ICC. (CMC)