‘Do or die’ as ICC venue tour begins

Next week it will be ‘do or die’ for the nine Caribbean host venues for ICC Cricket World Cup 2007.

Managing Director & CEO of ICC Cricket World Cup 2007, Chris Dehring, said the ICC Venue Tour, which started this week, in Barbados is the last call before ICC accepts or rejects a venue.

Officials will examine the Arnos Vale field next Friday November 24.{{more}}

“The ICC, CWC 2007 and all the major stakeholders in the event will be carrying out a thorough inspection and assessment of the preparedness of all Host Venues one final time during the coming weeks. This will be the sign-off that it is in fact all systems go for the staging of the Event. If there are countries not meeting the requirements, our board and the ICC are fully prepared to take the tough decisions and relocate matches to those host venues which demonstrate they are ready,” said Dehring candidly.

“This event is about to impact all of our lives and we need every single person – from the workers in the airlines and at the airports, to taxi and bus drivers, workers in hotels, restaurants, on construction sites and in the civil service – to take personal ownership of the tournament and raise their game; much in the same way that we are asking our West Indies team to raise theirs to win the coveted trophy.”

The CWC Managing Director also stressed that the media has an important role to play in educating the public and getting them fully attuned to the event.

“It’s also time for the media to put Cricket World Cup into greater focus. This is not just sports news, but it impacts news, business, finance, lifestyle and culture. To relegate the largest event – and the greatest Caribbean collaboration – in our history to the sports pages is a travesty and it is time the media shows its understanding of the realities of hosting a mega sporting event,” declared Dehring.