Joseph Cunningham, Gleaner WriterTHE INTERNATIONAL Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket World Cup (CWC) is the third largest international sporting event, and it is coming to Jamaica and the wider Caribbean.
With less than 270 days to go before the start of ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007, the Local Organising Committee (LOC)- Jamaica Cricket 2007 has announced that 1,200 volunteers are required to host matches in Jamaica.
The Jamaican Government established Jamaica Cricket 2007 Ltd., to operate as organisers for all world cup matches to be played in Jamaica.
Vilma McDonald, coordinator of the Jamaica Cricket 2007 Volunteer Programme said, "the objective of the volunteer programme is to recruit, train and deploy a high calibre of Jamaicans to assist as the need arises at both the Trelawny multi-purpose stadium and at Sabina Park between March and April 2007."
VISION STATEMENT
The company's vision statement is that 'Jamaica will be left with a positive and lasting legacy of volunteerism and a database of well trained and experienced volunteers for use in all other major events in the future.'
Key events for volunteers will be the launch of the championships, warm-up matches and the semi-final match to be hosted at Sabina Park in Kingston on April 24, 2007.
Consequently, "training is mandatory and must be completed in full," Mrs. McDonald said. The process will cover three distinct areas - cricket, country and job specifics.
At a press briefing held at the offices of the LOC on Thursday, June 15, it was disclosed that the CWC will host a 'train the trainers' workshop over three to four days in November. Only these persons will be permitted to train volunteers for CWC 2007.
Additionally, volunteers will be officially appointed only after successfully completing the volunteer training programme.
