West Indies ready for cricket Kumbh next year: Chris Dehring

THE Caribbean nations are readyfor the biggest cricketing event ofthe world, the World Cup in Marchand April next year. Every thing isgoing on as per schedule. I am sure itwill be the most successful event inthe history of cricket and also ofWest Indies, said a confident ChrisDehring, CEO and managing direc-tor of Cricket World Cup, 2007.

He was speaking at the editorialboard meeting of New York CarribNews in Manhattan last week. Healso addressed North Americancricket lovers at a meeting in TownHall at Brooklyn on June 2. Themeeting also featured a presenta-tion by him on the World Cup.

Dehring said the West Indiesgave a lot of importance to the avidcricket lovers in North America asthey expected the largest number ofspectators for this cricketing eventfrom this part of the world. AlreadyNorth America accounts for notonly the second largest number ofapplicants for tickets, it also has thesecond largest media rights, he said.

Dehring, the man in charge ofputting all plans in place for theevent, said there is lot of buzz inNorth America about the mostprestigious and popular event ofcricket. He said cricket has becomehighly popular in North Americabecause of the thousands of mi-grants from cricket-playing parts ofthe world like Britain, India, Pak-istan, Sri Lanka and the Caribbeannations itself.

Referring to the large number ofregistered players and the leaguesin North America, he said: Wehave seen evidence of the level ofinterest in the US. It continues toregister the second-highest numberof ticket applications for tickets.

He said five American travelcompanies have signed up as theOfficial Travel Agents for the Cup.Before leaving for West Indies,Dehring had a meeting on June 4with top officials of the Board ofControl for Cricket in India, Cana-dian Cricket Association and theUSA Cricket Association. Thoughdetails of the meeting weren’t avail-able immediately, it included widerange of discussions including plansfor the West Indies-India ODI se-ries this summer in US.

Commenting on preparationsfor the cup, Dehring said there arenine local organizing committees,one for each countryAntigua andBarbuda, Barbados, Grenada,Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St.Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent, andTrinidad and Tobago.

Security is one of the 24 differentelements of the preparation, hesaid. It is estimated that about100,000 people would visit theCaribbean nations during WorldCup. Dehring said every minor de-tails including preparing the venues,ticketing, marketing and welcomingthe players and hundreds and thou-sands of cricket lovers were being fi-nalized and would be ready in timefor the World Cup inaugural onMarch 13 at Sabina Park in Jamaica.

He said the tournament wouldhave a great impact on the econ-omy, specially the tourism industryof the region, with such a large num-ber of people visiting the region.