KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC):

TICKETING OFFICIALS from the nine Local Organising Committees (LOCs) and ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 Inc., have finalised procedures and policies for ticketing operations on match day.

Organisers of the global event staged a workshop in Barbados on Wednesday afternoon to fine-tune plans and procedures for ticketing operations during the tournament.

International Cricket Council (ICC) CWC 2007 project officer (ticketing), Delroy Taylor, explained that there would be a number of measures to govern ticketing during tournament time and these must be understood by every department which they affect.

"We want to ensure that the persons spearheading ticketing in each country are fully aware of the policies - which are geared towards problem-solving - and how they must be applied in relation to other departments and according to various scenarios," he said.

Taylor, a former Jamaica youth cricketer, said ticketing operations would naturally have to integrate on match days with other functional areas such as security, event management and venue development.

This process was the focus of the workshop that was attended by ICC CWC 2007 ticket centre supervisors from the nine host venues, as well as staff from CWC's ticketing unit.

"These procedures and policies relate to problems which spectators may encounter before entering the stadium and also while they are inside the stadium. We want everyone to know what should be done in particular situations, how it should be done and who has responsibility for what," said the CWC project officer.

During the workshop, participants also discussed the operation of the access control system, which will be in place at stadia. This encompasses turnstiles, an electronic bar-code reader (attached to the turnstiles) and a connection from the bar-code reader into CWC's ticketing database.

"Ticketing will be a major part of the access control set-up and obviously ticketing personnel will need to understand its functions in relation to their duties," Taylor pointed out.

The representatives of the LOCs were also shown samples of CWC tickets and had various security features outlined to them. Public ticketing begins on February 1 and fans will start receiving their tournament tickets as momentum builds towards the event, which starts March 5 with a series of warm-up fixtures.