KINGSTON (CMC):
WEST INDIES Cricket Board (WICB) presi-dent, Ken Gordon has described the awarding of the ICC Champions' Trophy in 2010 to the Caribbean as one of the first legacy benefit of staging next year's Cricket World Cup.
"We are very pleased to see that the work and planning which has been invested in the ICC Cricket World Cup has been acknowledged in this way.
"There's no doubt that such efforts played a significant part in the West Indies Cricket Board's successful bid for the ICC Champions Trophy," Gordon said.
"This will be another opportunity for the region to show it is capable of delivering a world class event in the same way that much bigger countries, with greater economies and resources, have been doing for many years.
"This is what we mean when we speak of the legacy benefits of Cricket World Cup. This is the first major example of what the Caribbean can reap in the future because of the investment being made now."
Gordon, also chairman of Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 Inc, said it was evidence that, given the proper infrastructure and professionalism, the Caribbean could host more international events.
He was also full of praise for the CWC 2007 Inc team which he said ensured the WICB had the chance of taking one of the tournaments up for grabs.
"That team at Cricket World Cup headquarters worked tremendously hard to ensure the WICB had the best possible chance of securing at least one of the tournaments for which ICC members were bidding," Gordon said.
"It was a first-class document which they prepared and it was very well received by the ICC. They were quite impressed."
He noted that the ICC had used a similar bid process to that conceptualised by WICB in determining the host venues for the World Cup and once this remained unchanged, the WICB would remain competitive in bidding for future tournaments.
"There were 24 questions just as Cricket World Cup 2007 had 24 deliverables and much of them were very similar," Gordon explained.
"That is a compliment of the highest order. Once ICC continues to utilise our blueprint, WICB should be competitive in bidding for major ICC tournaments in the future, especially with the new stadiums across the Caribbean."
