ICC team to check venues

A TWO-MEMBER International Cricket Council (ICC) inspection team will make a one-day visit to Trinidad tomorrow. According to Anand Daniel, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), the ICC duo will spend the day here looking at the work being done at the Queen’s Park Oval in St Clair, the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba, the National Cricket Centre in Couva and the Sir Frank Worrell Grounds at the University of the West Indies (UWI) campus, St Augustine. The venues are either being built or upgraded ahead of the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup, which will run from February until April of that year.

The inspection team comprises Andy Atkinson, a pitch and field expert, and Mahesh Parmer, a venue development Manager of the firm SKM, which was contracted by the ICC. Daniel noted that the group will be taking a look at the refurbishment work at the Oval between 9-9.45 am, before going on to evaluate the progress of the construction work at Tarouba from 10.45-11.30 am. From 11.45 am until 1.15 pm, the team will inspect the facilities at the National Cricket Centre and then have lunch at the venue, following which they will head to the UWI campus to take a closer look at the Sir Frank Worrell Grounds. That session will run from 2-2.45 pm.

The Tarouba Stadium, which is being constructed by the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDECOTT), is expected to be ready within the next 12 months while the Oval will be back on track for the 2006 Digicel Series matches against Zimbabwe and India, which takes place in April and May. Additionally, both grounds will be staging practice matches in June. The Sir Frank Worrell Grounds and the National Cricket Centre will also be used as practice venues during the competition. From March 5-9 2007, the Tarouba Stadium will be the venue for Group WD, where warm-up matches involving South Africa, Canada, Pakistan and Ireland will take place while the Queen’s Park Oval hosts Group “C” in the First Round phase from March 13-25, featuring Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh and Bermuda. The ICC tandem will leave on Tuesday for neighbouring Guyana where a similar inspection exercise will be conducted.