Guyana President guarantees completion of rooms for ICC CWC 2007

Guyana's Government has underlined its commitment to ensuring that the Host Venue delivers on all of its obligations for ICC Cricket World Cup 2007, including provision of the required number of hotel rooms.

Following a meeting between Guyana's President His Excellency Bharrat Jagdeo and ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 Inc. officials last Tuesday in Georgetown, ICC CWC 2007 Inc. Chairman Ken Gordon expressed optimism that Guyana's accommodation challenges for next year's 16-team tournament in the Caribbean can be resolved.

"The meeting went very well. Tour operators and travel agents - and no doubt everyone else involved with ICC CWC 2007 - will be pleased to learn that President Jagdeo has guaranteed the delivery of a number of hotel rooms in time for ICC CWC 2007. These rooms are currently either under construction or refurbishment and the Guyanese Government is prepared to provide a guarantee for their completion. This might include contracting rooms themselves to the tour operators, in order to mitigate any financial risk of non-delivery.

"President Jagdeo appreciates fully the critical nature of the accommodation issue and we have agreed to establish a task force to develop the appropriate mechanism for the guaranteed delivery of the rooms and execute an action plan that will address the situation in a timely manner," disclosed Gordon who was accompanied to Guyana by ICC CWC 2007 Inc. Managing Director Chris Dehring.

The latter reported "excellent progress" on Providence Cricket Stadium which is being built to host six Second Round - Super Eight matches from March 28 to April 9, 2007, which are expected to draw thousands of visitors from across the world to the South American nation.

"We are quite pleased with what we saw at Providence. The Guyana LOC (Local Organising Committee) is doing a good job and construction is progressing smoothly. We look forward to viewing further developments at that ground in the coming months as we gather momentum towards next year," said Dehring, who visited the venue after meeting with President Jagdeo.

CEO of the Guyana LOC Karan Singh and President of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Chetram Singh accompanied Messrs. Gordon and Dehring during their talks with the Guyanese president and on the tour of Providence.