With 100 days left to the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) World Cup Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies, ICC pitch and field consultant Andy Atkinson arrived in Guyana yesterday afternoon to work with the ground staff today at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.

Andy Atkinson

His role would be to assess the conditions of the pitch and outfield, to supervise any work or renovation to the stadium’s facilities and to carry out a job training exercise at the venue.

These activities will run from today until Sunday while on January 25 and 26 he will be conducting a two-day training seminar for all stadium staff, according to ICC Twenty20 West Indies Promotions and Corporate Services Officer Sabrina Panday.

Atkinson will be wrapping up his visit when he joins the ICC Venue Inspection Team on January 27 and 28.

This exercise has been initiated by  Stadium Manager Anthony Xavier with the support of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB).

The Cricket Development Committee (CDC) of the GCB would make arrangements to involve groundsmen countrywide to participate in the seminar.

Panday noted in a release that this exercise would be a rare opportunity for local groundsmen to interact with the ICC pitch and field consultant and to benefit from his skills and experience. This would also represent the first major seminar for groundsmen in Guyana for some time.

Guyana, Barbados and St Lucia are the three countries where World Cup matches will be held with Guyana hosting the opening ceremony on April 30.

Further, when the ICC inspectorate team visited last year it was impressed with the facilities in Guyana.

The inspection team included Ernest Hilaire, Tournament Director – ICC WT20 West Indies 2010, Chris Tetley ICC Events Manager, Brian Murgatroyd, ICC Manager – Media & Communications Ravi Sawani, General Manager, ACSU, Vivienne Brown, ICC Host Liaison, Emma Waite, Commercial Account Manager, Aarti Dabas, Media Rights & Broadcast Manager, Saeed Izadi; Kaushik Basu,

ESPN Star Sports, Andy Atkinson, ICC Pitch Consultant, Tim May, CEO, FICA, Garith Styles, Sports Logistics, Tom Roche, Project Director – Corporate Hospitality (WICB) President Dr. Julian R. Hunte and Vice-President Dave Cameron.