Photo by Adrian Frater
Chris Smith (left) the Venue Development Manager for the Local Organising Committee (LOC), looking at a diagram of the Stadium earlier this year. At centre is Rick Jamieson of Global Cricket Corporation (GCC) while looking on is Don Lockerbie Venue Development Director of the ICC. The three were on a tour of the new Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium.

Adrian Frater, News Editor

Western Bureau:

The new Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium, which will host the opening ceremony for the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup, was officially hand over to the Local Organising Committee (LOC) by the Chinese developers Complant during the lunch break in Sunday's game between a Lashings X1 and a Jamaica Invitational X1 at the new facility.

'Within a year we have witnessed the facility being transformed from a piece of woodland into this magnificent new facility thanks to the hard work of the Jamaican and Chinese workers," said Moo Fu Rong, the president of Complant. "Please take care of her so that she may be of tremendous benefit to this generation and the generations to come."

As a symbolic gesture to mark the handing over of the facility, which was completed on time and within budget, Mr. Rong presented Chris Smith, the venue development manager for Jamaica's LOC, with an exquisite Glass Bowl, with a laser design of the new stadium fashioned into it.

"We really enjoyed working with the Chinese on this project and it is my hope that this will be the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship between China and Jamaica," said Smith. "I too hope that this stadium will be around to serve many generations to come."

Loan

The stadium, which is sited on 40 acres of land and has a capacity for 25,000 fans, was built through a US$35m loan from the government of China. Recently, Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller hinted that she would like to see the facility further developed into a full-fledged sporting arena, catering to a variety of other sports such as netball and baseball.

In addition to the World Cup opening ceremony, which will be televised to an expect 3.5 billion viewers world-wide, the new facility, which has already hosted two international games - Jamaica against the United States and Lashings versus Jamaica - will host a number of warm-up games in the build-up to the World Cup.

"This is an absolutely fantastic stadium, it is really beautiful," said David Folb, the owner of the Lashings teams, which played Jamaica at the new stadium on Sunday. "I think it is going to serve Jamaica's cricket well."