Gibbs heads USA W/Cup cricket bid

EX-WEST INDIES offspinner Lance Gibbs is leading a United States bid to stage Cricket World Cup 2007. So now a total of 11 countries, including the USA, have submitted bids to stage games during the 2007 Cricket World Cup. The tournament will be primarily based in the Caribbean, but Lauderhill in Florida will also be considered by a venue assessment team. Of the 11, the bid from Trinidad and Tobago was accepted, despite arriving 85 minutes after the deadline.

Eight different grounds are needed for the competition and those chosen are scheduled to be announced on July 2. The tournament schedule will then be confirmed ten days later. “We are extremely pleased that so many countries have made themselves available to share with the WICB (West Indies Cricket Board) and CWC 2007, the responsibility of hosting this mammoth event,” said the tournament’s managing director, Chris Dehring. The World Cup will start in April 2007 and is due to feature 16 teams, two more than for last year’s tournament in South Africa, and 51 matches. There will be four first round groups, with the top two from each progressing to a new Super 8 second round format. Lauderhill will stage a three-day international match between the USA and Canada, starting on May 28, which is part of the ICC Intercontinental Cup.  

The venue assessment team will then arrive early next month and the indications are that providing the facilities are up to scratch, their bid is likely to be successful. North America is seen as a prime expansion area by the International Cricket Council. “You can’t truly have an international game based on ten teams, you have to be expansionist and open up new markets,” president Ehsan Mani said last year. The USA will take part in the ICC Champions Trophy in England in September, having won the Six Nations Challenge event in Dubai earlier this year. Countries bidding: Antigua/Barbuda; Barbados; Bermuda; Grenada; Guyana; Jamaica; St Kitts-Nevis; St Lucia; St Vincent/Grenadines; Trinidad and Tobago; USA.