Trinidad venues get ICC approval for World Cup

"Things are going pretty well." That was the assessment of International Cricket Council (ICC) pitch & field consultant Andy Atkinson after his tour of four of the venues to be used for the World Cup 2007 matches to be hosted in Trinidad.

Atkinson inspected the pitches and outfields at the UWI Sports and Physical Education Centre (SPEC) in St Augustine; the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba; the National Cricket Centre in Balmain, Couva; and the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain in that order.

And the ICC official was satisfied with the state of the pitches. "There is not much more we can do now," he stated. "We just have to consolidate the square and re-grow the grass on the pitches after the matches played here. And that will come with a little rain and sun. So I would say that things are going pretty well."

Atkinson said with some luck, once the hurricane season is kind to the Caribbean, the situation with the pitches will be right on target.

Atkinson is scheduled to return to Trinidad in September to complete another round of inspections, before a high-powered ICC team shows up in November to survey the pitches ahead of the March 15 start of the World Cup in this country.

The ICC man also took the opportunity to talk with the groundsmen at the four venues and was updated on Trinidad and Tobago's state of preparedness by the Local Organising Committee's (LOC) Cricket Operations and Logistics manager, Anne Browne-John.

Atkinson's confidence in the state of readiness of the local pitches follows on the heels of the resounding approval of Don Lockerbie, the International Cricket Council (ICC) venue development director for the Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007, of the two local venues that will host the Brown Package for the tournament next year - the Queen's Park Oval and Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba - back in May.

Trinidad and Tobago will host eight of the 16 teams for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 from March 5 through March 25 - some in warm-up matches which will be played at the still-under-construction Brian Lara Stadium and some in the first round stage matches which will be contested at the refurbished 17,000-seat Queen's Park Oval.

Tickets for Cricket World Cup 2007 are available at the three Ticket Centres which are located at the Jean Pierre Complex, Port of Spain; the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva; and the TSTT Building in Scarborough, Tobago. Phase I of the ticket application process closes on July 31.