South Africa gears up for Twenty20 World Championship

Six South African grounds will compete to be one of the three venues for the Twenty20 World Championship in 2007. The decision will be made by the newly-formed Policy Committee which met for the first time on Wednesday after the ICC limited the number of grounds to three.

John Smith will chair the committee and Steve Elworthy will be the tournament director, a press conference in Johannesburg announced. Smith hhas chaired the Ministerial Committee on Cricket Tranformation before, while Elworthy has already proven his worth as a commercial cricket director.

Gerald Majola, the chief executive of the South African board, heaped glowing praise on both, calling Elworthy "the ideal tournament director" and Smith "an outstanding chair." He added: "John is one of South Africa's leading jurists and has an extensive knowledge of South African cricket and its vision."