ICC Cricket World Cup gathers experts at UWI for first pitch and field conference

West Indies legends Andy Roberts, Reverend Wes Hall and Desmond Haynes gathered today to participate in the first ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 Pitch and Field Conference. The former West Indies cricket greats were part of "Breakfast of Champions", a forum led and moderated by Professor Hilary Beckles.

The forum took place at the start of the second day of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 Pitch and Field conference held in preparation for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007. Beginning on Monday, the two-day conference took place at UWI, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados in conjunction with the university's Sports Agronomy Unit. The former cricketers were there to discuss what makes a great pitch, from the perspective of a player.

Professor Beckles, a member of the ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 Inc. board of directors, hosted the conference which attracted a total of 50 registered attendees from across the region.

Don Lockerbie, Venue Development Director and Chief Operating Officer of ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 Inc. explained the fundamental objective of the conference.

"ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 Inc. is endeavouring to develop the finest collection ever assembled of Pitch squares and outfields for the CWC 2007. In a region that has experienced some consistency troubles of late, with regards to grounds, we are gathering the best and the brightest in the Caribbean, with some international expertise added to the formula, to focus on developing grounds to meet this vital and core CWC 2007 objective."

He expressed his satisfaction with the level of attendance at this landmark conference and at the commitment being shown by the host venues to prepare to meet the goal of having a total of 36 facilities ready for 2007.

"For ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 each of the Host Venues will develop stadium grounds, each with two separate grounds for team training - including the 12 stadium grounds, this makes a total of 36 facilities which will be required in order to conduct the tournament in 9 countries. With fifty persons registering for this first Pitch and Field Conference - we are encouraged greatly by the effort being made in our Host Venues to achieve this goal and objective."

Teddy Griffith, President of the West Indies Cricket Board; Andy Atkinson, ICC Pitch Consultant; Peter Semos, former curator of the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Andy Roberts also gave feature addresses to the assembled delegates.

The ICC requires that all grounds meet ICC standards and approval no later than July 2006.