Guyana's World Cup preparations get underway

Guyana, one of the eight host venues for the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean, has taken its first steps of building a new stadium for the tournament. Work on this has already begun ahead of the week-long meeting starting in Jamaica tomorrow, in which officials from all the host nations will update their preparations for the competitions.

Rawle Brancker, chairman of the World Cup committee, and Donald Lockerbie, a development director, inspected the site in Guyana and met with officials last week, and both were impressed with the initiative shown by the Guyanese.

Lockerbie said: "It is just great that in advance of the meeting, the team and government in Guyana is pushing ahead and is building momentum which will spread across the region."

Brancker was just as encouraging: "Our meeting with President Jagdeo was especially meaningful as he outlined Guyana's commitment and full cooperation to meet the standards, mandates and deadlines." He added, "As a Super Eight venue, we will need a state-of-the-art venue with amenities and features that will add to the performance of the players and officials as well as ensure the enjoyment of all our sponsors, spectators and VIPs.

"We feel that the new site offers an outstanding opportunity for Guyana to develop a world-class venue free of security, transport, traffic and urban issues that may have affected Bourda as a World Cup site."

The planning for the new 20,000 seat venue is underway, and it is hoped that it will be completed in the next two years.