GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC):

THE STABROEK newspaper reported yesterday that Guyana has submitted a bid to host matches during the World Twenty20 Championship in two years time in the Caribbean.

Guyana's bid was hand delivered last Monday to the West Indies Cricket Board's (WICB) headquarters in St John's, Antigua, by permanent secretary in the Ministry of Sports, Keith Booker, a day before the deadline date.

Minister of Sports, Frank Anthony, said Guyana was the first bidder and its bid document was prepared by the same team that worked on last year's World Cup staged in the Caribbean.

Strong bid

"When we hosted the World Cup, we also said that we will be looking at hosting other international events, and I think we have a very strong bid," Anthony said.

"If the criteria are the same for what was used for hosting the World Cup, then we stand a very good chance, but we have to wait and see," he said.

"During the World Cup, when some countries in the Caribbean were struggling to have attendance during that period, we were able to have very good turnouts at the National Stadium.

"Apart from the final, we also had one of the largest crowds in the tournament when the West Indies faced Sri Lanka which attracted 12,250 people, which was very good."

Cricket's world governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), announced last month that the West Indies will host the World Twenty20 Championship in 2010.

The ICC said the decision followed the postponement of the 2008 ICC Champions Trophy which was to be staged last month in Pakistan.

With this year's Champions Trophy pushed back until September next year due to safety concerns in Pakistan, this would have meant that the competition would have been played twice in the space of nine months had the ICC not chosen to scrap its plans for a 2010 edition in the Caribbean.

So, the ICC decided to have a World Twenty20 Championship instead in April-May 2010 in the Caribbean.

Better spread

Although a World Twenty20 Champion-ship takes place next year in England, and this competition is to be held every second year, the ICC decided to hold it on the trot to set its calendar right and ensure a better spread of tournaments.

The 2010 World Twenty20 Champion-ship is set to be held from April 23 to May 9, and will be staged at three venues to be chosen by the ICC in January next year, following nominations from the WICB.

The WICB had started preparations for the 2010 Champions Trophy when it appointed Ernest Hilaire as tournament director.

Hillaire, a prominent attorney-at-law from St Lucia, had served as chief executive officer of the local organising committee for his homeland's leg of the 2007 World Cup.