While the West Indies cricket team is on a tour of Sri Lanka, West Indian cricket legend Clive Lloyd will be in town today on a different mission – to inspect and report back to the International Cricket Council (ICC) whether the three Sri Lankan venues that are to be used for next year’s ICC World Cup would be ready on time.
Sources said that ICC which publicly expressed confidence on a few previous occasions are now sweating at the prospect of the Sri Lankan venues not being ready in time for the showpiece event after receiving the latest reports on the venues at Hambantota, Pallekele and Premadasa Stadium.
ICC team was to visit Sri Lanka on October 29 for an inspection, but Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) had reportedly made some frantic efforts through a highly respected top Sri Lankan official attached to the ICC and had been able to postpone the visit by two weeks.
International media reports claimed last week that the ICC has raised the venue issue with SLC and expressed apprehension at the venues being completed by the December 31 deadline, one month beyond the Host Agreement venue-completion time of November 30, 2010.
The report quoted sources in Dubai, that the ICC’s venue consultant, Eugene van Vuuren — on the basis of the progress report of the construction work he has received — has told the ICC event manager Chris Tetley, that he does not expect the facilities at Premadasa, Hambantota and Pallekele to be ready by December 31.
Apart from the three Sri Lankan venues, two Indian venues Chennai and Mumbai have also raised concern with only a little over 100 days left for the start of the quadrennial event at Dhaka on February 19, 2011.
Mumbai is scheduled to host the final at the Wankhede Stadium on April 2.
Tetley has remarked in a note that, “It would appear that progress has not been as good as he (Eugene van Vuuren) expected in recent weeks at these venues. The venue can only be considered to have been completed once all utilities and finishing’s have been installed and the venue is fully operational.”
Tetley has also observed, “It’s often the case that completing the interiors to the necessary standard takes far longer than anticipated, not to mention dealing with the inevitable snag-lists that are always a feature of newly constructed facilities.’‘The ICC has now sought a full report from all 13 venues about (a) date for total completion of all work, including construction and interior services and fixtures, (b) assessment of progress at the date of the report, (c) outline of work still to be completed at the date of the report, (d) photographic evidence of all aspects of the venue to support the assessment of progress and outline of work to be completed.
The latest ICC report on World Cup venues has been sent to Campbell Jamieson, General Manager (Commercial), ICC, David Richardson, General Manager (Cricket), ICC and Dhiraj Malhotra, World Cup Coordinator, ICC and also to Indian and Sri Lankan officials.In June this year, Vuuren reported that all venues in Sri Lanka were on track barring the Premadasa Stadium. A view which was also backed up by the ICC’s pitch consultant, Andy Atkinson, at the time who said the Premadasa was a “worry” for him.
Despite these concerns, Secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) interim committee Nishantha Ranatunga told media earlier in October that he was confident of satisfying the ICC during an inspection scheduled for later that month.
“We are on course with the time schedule given to us by our contractors. We are more than confident that we can satisfy the ICC delegation when they visit Sri Lanka in November. They are expected to give their nod to the three Lankan venues – R. Premadasa Stadium, the Pallekele Stadium and the Hambantota Stadium,” Ranatunga said. (Daily Mirror)
