REID

Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport Editor

FLORENCE HALL, Trelawny:

TICKET SALES are approaching the levels that will make local officials satisfied with their investment in this year's ICC Cricket World Cup tournament.

Dr. Wayne Reid, chairman of Jamaica Cricket 2007 Limited - the Local Organising Committee, told The Gleaner during the West Indies-Kenya warm-up match at the spanking new Trelawny stadium on Monday, that he was anticipating 60 per cent ticket sales and that they were approaching those numbers.

"There's been a dramatic turn since this part of the year, more so in February," Dr. Reid said. "When we look at the trend, it's getting closer to what we'd hoped for from the beginning."

He added: "We are expecting, in terms of total seating over the seven events - because that's where we're looking for the cash from - we'relooking for 60 per cent in total, as against capacity. That's what we're looking at. We hope we can achieve that."

Exceed expectations

He added that the sale of seats at Sabina Park - with a 20,000 capacity - where the West Indies group matches will be hosted appears well set to exceed expectations.

"Up to two, three weeks ago, we were looking at 14,000 out of the 21,000 and I know that more than that 14,000 will be sold by the time the game is played," Dr. Reid said.

Continuing, he added: "The West Indies-India match, the West Indies-Pakistan, the semi-final and the opening ceremony, those events are getting close to the numbers we had expected. The other matches are not as good, chiefly as you'd have recognised, Jamaican people, they like to see a good contest and they think that having Zimbabwe and Ireland would not give the level of competition other teams would."

The LOC head also said the organisation wants to sell about 9,000 tickets for the Windies-India practice contest in Trelawny on Friday.

"For the West Indies-India match we hope to get 8,000-9,000 people, or more. The Pakistan (West Indies) match, the opening match, there should be a good crowd at Sabina," he added of the competition's opening match on Tuesday, March 13 at Sabina Park.

On Monday Dr. Reid said he didn't know the exact ticket sales figure for the opening clash, but pointed to the differences in packing the venue like general one-day internationals because the seating capacity has been increased by at least 6,000 for the World Cup.