Gordon hints at World Cup legacy

Ken Gordon, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president, has said that the awarding of the ICC Champions Trophy in 2010 to the Caribbean is the first benefit of hosting next year's World Cup.

"We are very pleased to see that the work and planning which has been invested in the ICC Cricket World Cup has been acknowledged in this way," Gordon told the Jamaica Gleaner. "There's no doubt that such efforts played a significant part in the West Indies Cricket Board's successful bid for the ICC Champions Trophy. This will be another opportunity for the region to show it is capable of delivering a world class event in the same way that much bigger countries, with greater economies and resources, have been doing for many years.

"This is what we mean when we speak of the legacy benefits of Cricket World Cup. This is the first major example of what the Caribbean can reap in the future because of the investment being made now."

Gordon, who is also the chairman of Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 Inc., praised his team for ensuring that the WICB had set up a professional bid. "That team at Cricket World Cup headquarters worked tremendously hard to ensure the WICB had the best possible chance of securing at least one of the tournaments for which ICC members were bidding," he said. "It was a first-class document which they prepared and it was very well received by the ICC. They were quite impressed."

Gordon explained that the ICC had used a similar bid process to that of the WICB in determining host venues for the World Cup. "There were 24 questions just as Cricket World Cup 2007 had 24 deliverables and much of them were very similar," he said. "That is a compliment of the highest order. Once ICC continues to utilise our blueprint, WICB should be competitive in bidding for major ICC tournaments in the future, especially with the new stadiums across the Caribbean."

Gordon also felt that given proper infrastructure and professionalism, the Caribbean could host more international events.