/ 12 December 2006

Windies plan major security for World Cup

The organisers of next year’s Cricket World Cup are taking every possible step to ensure security during the event in the Caribbean, a top official said on Tuesday.

Foreign experts have been called in to advise on the security plans for the championship, which begins in March, chairperson of the World Cup 2007 organising board Ken Gordon told the media.

”Considering the global need for security in the last five years, we have been addressing the security question thoroughly and hope to topple the problem,” Gordon said.

The West Indies, winners of the first two World Cups held in England in 1975 and 1979, host the ninth World Cup in nine different Caribbean countries from March 13 to April 28 next year.

Gordon — who is also the chairperson of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and is in Pakistan to watch the ongoing one-day series between Pakistan and the West Indies — said the security team would leave no stone unturned.

”We have pulled together a good team from the nine sovereign states of the Caribbean and some experts from elsewhere, so we are dealing with it very seriously and leaving nothing to chance,” said Gordon.

”We also expect a lot of tourists, so we need to take the security thing seriously and we are up to the task.”

The West Indies face Pakistan in the opening match in Jamaica on March 13, and Gordon hopes all arrangements will be ready before time.

”Stadiums are nearing completion as a lot of hard work has been put in. We expect all stadiums to be ready in time for a memorable event,” said Gordon, who is hopeful of reaching $40-million in ticket sales.

”The ticket sales are very much on target and half of it has been achieved from the first phase. The second phase is under way and the third would start next month,” said Gordon.

The WICB chairperson hoped the West Indies team will do well in the event, which is being held in the Caribbean for the first time.

”By and large the West Indies team will be a stronger one. We do have recent disappointments in Pakistan but we are missing three of our key players, so once they come back I hope the team will do well in the World Cup,” he said.

The West Indies are without vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, all-rounder Dwayne Bravo and batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Sarwan (fractured foot) and Bravo (helping an ailing family member) returned home last week.

Chanderpaul has yet to play a match in the one-day series after suffering a knee injury.

The West Indies, trailing 2-0 in the five-match series, face Pakistan in a must-win match on Wednesday. Pakistan won the second match at Faisalabad by a narrow two-wicket margin and followed it with an emphatic seven-wicket win in the third in Lahore.

The first match in Rawalpindi was rained off. — AFP

 

AFP