Last minute rush for Aussies feared

With just two weeks to go before the Australian team arrives in the Caribbean for a four-Test and seven One-Day series, there is a lot of panic and concern among several of the cricketing grounds in the Caribbean.

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) are in charge of all of the grounds, in terms of allocation of ticket sales and the overall arrangements, but so far the Test playing venues have yet to received information from the WICB about several concerns. “A lot of the WICB members are still in South Africa, because there was an official pre-launch of the staging of the World Cup 2007. Some of the officials were invited for the semi-finals this week,” one official stated. “But there are a lot of grounds that need work and are in need of information. The WICB need to get their act together. “We are quite concerned that at this last moment, there is still so much to be arranged and it may mean that a lot of things will have to be hustled before the First Test in Guyana,” he added.

It is understood that a number of the cricketing grounds are under-prepared because there is still a lot of information which normally comes forward early on that is waiting to be dispatched . “For instance ticket information for the First Test would have been passed to the relevant grounds so that they can begin their sales based on what the WICB have allocated, but a lot of this is still to be completed,” noted the source. Among the officials who travelled to South Africa are Acting Chief Executive Officer of the WICB, Roger Braithwaite and President of the WICB, Wes Hall. The West Indies heralded hosting of the Cricket World Cup 2007 with a Caribbean-style event on March 9 in South Africa. International journalists and cricket officials, tour operators and other influential persons were invited to get a taste of what the Caribbean have to offer the world in four years.

The event, which was hosted at a private venue by the Windies World Cup 2007 delegation in South Africa was made possible through the support of a number of companies as well as Caribbean cultural and tourism bodies. Video extracts of the event will be shown internationally to build awareness of the West Indies as the next World Cup draws close. But while all this is going on Steve Waugh has already confirmed himself for the tour of the Caribbean. “Imagine the Australians have already named their captain, and their team is expected shortly and the WICB have not finalised the coach and manager post as yet because the persons who did the interview are all members of the WICB executive and they cannot meet as yet with the full executive to ratify all their decisions,” the source noted. “At this time, it seems there are some in the WICB that are more concerned with ensuring that we look good for the Next World Cup which is a long way off in 2007, compared to the Australian Test series which is next month,” he added.