KINGSTON, Jamaica, Fri. Dec. 8, 2006: Jamaica is 85 percent ready for the staging of the Cricket World Cup 2007. That’s the word from Minister of Information and Development, Donald Buchanan.
Buchanan, addressing a post cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House this week, said that information from the Local Organizing Committee indicate that work was on schedule at Sabina Park in Kingston and Greenfield in Trelawny.
He added that the benchmark used to determine the level of preparedness is the post venue agreement between the government and the International Cricket Council.
But the minister stressed that preparations were advanced with respect to practice venues, media facilities, security arrangements and the sale of tickets for warm-up and group matches, "but more particularly (for) the semi-finals.”
“There is almost a full sell out of tickets for the event,” said Buchanan, adding that the opening ceremony in Trelawny, would give the Caribbean a tremendous opportunity to showcase its culture.
"The opening ceremony is going to be watched by some 8 to 9 million people across the globe and therefore will be showcasing Jamaica to an extent that maybe we have never experienced before," he added.
Officials are hoping that more than 100,000 fans will attend the event that runs from March 13 to April 28, 2007. The first match of the tournament will take place on Tuesday March 13 at the newly renovated Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica between the West Indies and Pakistan in Group D. So far, ICC CWC 2007 officials indicate only half of the tickets for the event have been sold.
Fifty-one matches will take place over 47 days in eight countries. Almost all of the countries are building new stadiums for the event.
