Second phase of World Cup bidding process kicks off

The second phase of the bidding process for the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies has begun. The Venue Assessment Team (VAT), the ICC and the World Cup organising committee began the tour yesterday and will visit all the countries bidding to host matches in the tournament.

The VAT, comprising experts from various sports, began the tour with a two-day visit to Lauderhill in Broward County, Florida. They will then move on to Antigua (June 8 and 9), St Kitts (June 9 and 10), Jamaica (June 10 and 11) and Bermuda (June 11 and 12).

The touring party had covered St Lucia, Grenada, St Vincent, Trinidad, Guyana, and Barbados in the first part of the tour from May 24 to 29. After the first leg, the VAT had held private meetings with local bid committees while the officials had discussed venue arrangements and related matters with the governments and cricket officials.

Expressing satisfaction with the work done so far by the VAT on the verification tour, Chris Dehring, the managing director of the organising committee, said: "This tour is a critical phase in the venue selection process following which the VAT will prepare a technical report for submission to the CWC [Cricket World Cup] board who they will also fully brief on their findings."

The VAT will present their technical report on June 24 to the board who will make the decision on the venues and allocate matches. That will require an approval from the ICC, who will then announce the list of venues to host matches on July 4 and allocate matches on July 13.