- Patrick Campbell/Staff Photographer
Dr. Wayne Reid, right, Chairman of Jamaica's 2007 Cricket World Cup Bid Committee, accepts the events package from Christopher Dehring, managing director and CEO, ICC CWC West Indies 2007 Inc., during the Award of Matches Ceremony held at the Ritz-Carlton, Montego Bay, last night.
Paul A. Reid, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
JAMAICA missed out in its bid to host the Final of the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup to be staged in the region for the first time in 2007, after Barbados won the coveted match at last night's glitzy Award of Matches Ceremony held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Rose Hall.
Barbados was given the Black Events Package that includes the Final, three of the largest Super 8 second round matches and three other Super 8 matches for a total of seven games.
Jamaica, however, will play host to all 16 teams taking part in the tournament as it landed the Yellow Events Package that included the opening ceremony and opening game, one of the two semi-finals and six first round games.
Jamaica will also be home to the host team the West Indies who will play all their first round group matches here.
Sabina Park will be the venue for the games to be played in Jamaica.
The announcement by Chris Dehring, managing drector and CEO of ICC CWC WI 2007 Inc., that Jamaica was awarded the largest number of games was greeted by a loud applause and cheering, led by Sports Minister Portia Simpson Miller and Minister of Tourism and Culture, Aloun Assamba.
Last night's ceremony that was broadcast live to the rest of the region and to ICC member countries was attended by heads of government, the ICC top brass including president Ehsan Mani, president of the West Indies Cricket Board Teddy Griffith, as well as sponsors and representatives of the host venues.
The ceremony, which had noted cricket journalists Simon Croskill and Donna Symmonds as emcees, also heard from Dr The Hon. Keith Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada and Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on Cricket, Rawle Brancker, chairman of the ICC Cricket World Cup WI 2007 Inc., and Donald Lockerbie, Venue Development Director for ICC CWC WI 2007 Inc.
,b>Lost bid presents 'new perspective'
Nodley Wright, Freelance Writer
A DISAPPOINTED chairman of Jamaica's World Cup bid committee, Dr. Wayne Reid, said last night that the country will refocus their preparations for cricket's World Cup following the awarding of the final to Barbados.
"It does present a new perspective on the whole matter of the World Cup since we had been focusing on the finals and the quarter-finals," said Dr. Reid shortly after the announcement was made at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montego Bay.
Instead of the coveted finals Jamaica were awarded the opening ceremony, which they had not bid for, the opening game and one of the semi-final games.
"It (the package awarded) will give us very little time to refocus our efforts on the opening ceremony, the opening match and the semi-finals. However, we have done quite a lot of work already in preparing us for the event which we think will be larger than the semi-finals which we will be hosting so I do not think it will be a problem for us to re-look at how we approach things," he added.
ADJUSTMENTS
Because of Jamaica's package, a number of adjustments will have to be made. Among the adjustments he said was that the seating capacity at Sabina Park could be reduced to 20,000 down from the projected capacity of 30,000.
Another he said is finding a location for the opening ceremony which could put the rejected Greenfield venue back into contention.
"In finding a venue for the opening ceremony we have to make decisions quickly. Two of the options that we have are the National Stadium and the other is Greenfield," Dr. Reid said.
As a result of the change in the package Dr. Reid said that this Friday's meeting with the Prime Minister (P.J. Patterson) and the Finance Minister (Dr. Omar Davies) is even more important as they have even less time to get themselves organised.
"We will meet on Friday. It will be a very important meeting with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance to tie up some matters regarding the financing of everything and our schedule. The Prime Minister has been very involved in the whole process. By this weekend we will have our schedule pretty much worked out," Dr. Reid explained.
Even before that they will receive the bids from the contractors.
"We will have received by tomorrow the bid for the contracts for both venues. Although the ICC and CWC had rejected Greenfield it could come back on the table. The opening ceremony. It is a lot of things that we have to look at now to see how best we optimise."
In looking at the new package Dr. Reid said depending on the perspective in which one looks at this bid could actually work out better for Jamaica.
"You could look at it from two perspectives either from the entertainment/tourism packaging perspective or from the cricketing perspective. The packaging that we have got probably has greater potential for tourism and entertainment. The package that we went after had greater potential for cricket," he said.
