By Tym Glaser, Associate Editor - Sport
Rawle Brancker (second left), chairman of the West Indies World Cup 2007 committee, accepts the tournament trophy from ICC president Ehsan Mani. Looking on are the WIWC 2007's driving force, Chris Dehring (right) and ICC CEO Malcolm Speed (left). - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
THE TWO most senior executives of the International Cricket Council (ICC) arrived in Jamaica yesterday brimming with confidence about the Caribbean's ability to host the 2007 World Cup.
During a brief press conference at the Norman Manley International Airport, the ICC's chief executive officer, Malcolm Speed, and the council's president, Ehsan Mani, allayed fears - stemming from reports out of Australia that there was a growing concern within the sport's primary body about the Caribbean's ability to host cricket's premier event in four year's time.
A report in an Australian newspaper last week stated that the island continent had been nominated as a back-up venue for the Cup due to major infrastructural and logistical problems the West Indies would face hosting the one-day extravaganza.
While noting organising the World Cup in possibly as many as eight separate countries would be a huge task, Mani and Speed said their council's full weight was behind the effort and that it would go ahead in the region.
"Let me just say that the ICC is delighted to start the process of setting up the World Cup," Speed said upon arrival from Barbados and before a series of key meetings with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the World Cup organising committee over the next few days.
BACK-UP
"This is the start of the process and we are looking forward to some hard work and a couple of interesting days here," said Speed, an Australian who was serenaded by what seemed like a mento version of 'Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport' in the airport lobby.
As to Australia's back-up status, Mani said: "We are required by our commercial partners and for insurance purposes to have a back-up in South Africa we had a back-up and I think it was Australia and New Zealand."
Speed added: "I think it is important to say that no decision has been made by the ICC as to which country will be the back-up venue and any suggestion that it is Australia is quite premature and inappropriate.
"At a time in the future the ICC will meet and nominate a back-up venue that has not occurred; as to when that will be somewhere around two years from the event but that has not been decided yet," he said.
With the World Cup 2007 organising committee facing logistical and infrastructral problems, as well as regional rivalries, Speed was asked how far the ICC could go to aid the situation.
"The ICC is the owner of the event, World Cup 2007, and the implementation and delivery of that event have been delegated to the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and we will work with it to make sure that happens at the highest level."
Neither Mani nor Speed harboured any fears that World Cup 2007 would not be well supported, with the former citing the long-term fiscal and tourism benefits the event would bring. "What always strikes me about the West Indies is your great cricket background," Speed said, putting another spin on the tournament. "The fact is that cricket is part of your culture and a huge part of what the West Indies is all about.
"Every time I come here I am just amazed about the enthusiasm everyone shows for the game and you need only, over the next four years, to translate that enthusiasm into an absolutely brilliant World Cup."
Mani and Speed later attended a cornerstone laying ceremony for the island's World Cup 2007 office. Tonight they sign the ICC World Cup host agreement.
