Guyana presented a bid to host matches for next year’s ICC Under-19 World Cup which will be held in the West Indies and acting Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Kwame McCoy on Thursday led a team to inspect some of the potential venues for those matches.
Minister McCoy along with officials of the National Sports Commission (NSC) visited Demerara Cricket Club, Everest Cricket Club, Georgetown Cricket Club, and the Guyana Cricket Board’s facility at La Bonne Intention, East Coast Demerara, to assess the level of readiness as a team from the International Cricket Council (ICC) are expected to arrive on September 2 to conduct their assessment.
Those venues along with the National Stadium, Providence, – Guyana’s lone ICC accredited venue – are the potential venues for the hosting of matches should Guyana’s bid be successful.
“The team here came out this afternoon to make our own assessment and to get an idea as to what the possibilities are for the usage of any of these facilities and which might be in shape, notwithstanding minor works in some instances, to be able to get it to the fit and proper category more or less”, the Minister stated in an interview with the Department of Public Information.
Director of Sport, Steve Ninvalle, said he believes the country’s chances are good after the fact-finding mission.
“I think our chances are as good as any other country. Guyana has hosted several international events including cricket. We have the facilities… We will have a team from the ICC here next week, they will spend three or four days here and they will have the final say in the determination of whether or not these facilities that we have, if they have made the grade that they will accept,” the Director of Sport indicated.
Ninvalle further revealed that three grounds are expected to be used to host the World Cup if the bid is successful as the Guyana Cricket Board submitted six venues for consideration.
In June, substantive Sport Minister, Charles Ramson Jr., confirmed Guyana’s submission of a bid to host games in the prestigious global event.
The Minister stated: “The Ministry is confident of being able to be successful in that bid, but obviously it’s still a competitive process, it has to be evaluated. But we believe our bid is strong.”
Countries have been required to demonstrate their ability to stage the matches by providing adequate match and training facilities, undergo a venue inspection, provide immigration, customs, medical and security support, as well as other operational and logistical requirements including accommodation for the members of the teams, match officials and broadcast crew.
Once all bids have been reviewed the successful host countries will be announced.
The ICC U19 Cricket World Cup will be hosted by Cricket West Indies from January 4 to February 3, 2022.
