THE format of the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean is to be finalised when the movers and shakers of world cricket assemble in Barbados this week to discuss a number of issues.
Of the items on the agenda for the executive committee of the game’s governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), the World Cup is “probably top of the pops from a West Indies perspective”, ICC communications officer Brendan McClements said by telephone from London, Saturday.
The meeting, at the Royal Pavilion Hotel, St James, on Wednesday and Thursday, is also a getting-to-know-you opportunity for new West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Teddy Griffith as it’s his first ICC conference since his election last month.
ICC president Ehsan Mani of Pakistan, chief executive Malcolm Speed and other members of management have scheduled separate, follow-up talks with the WICB and with Windies World Cup 2007 Inc, the company set up to plan and execute the event, next weekend in Jamaica where it is headquartered.
McClements called the former “an ICC road show”.
“We are setting up similar meetings with various boards around the world, talking about how the ICC goes about its business and listening to things that are important to them,” he said.
“Continuity is important,” he added. “When new people come on board we aim to get them up to speed on both sides as quickly as possible.”
In addition to Mani and Speed, there are 13 directors on the executive, comprising heads of the boards of the ten full, Test-playing members and three associate members.
They will have before them a plan from the chief executives of member boards, who make up the cricket committee (management), to expand the tournament from 14 teams, as in 2003 in South Africa, to 16 but cut its duration by reducing the number of matches.
Speed explained at the time that the proposal, devised at a meeting in Mumbai in August, was to have four groups of four at the preliminary stage followed by a “Super Eights” before moving on to the semifinals and final. Other main items on the agenda concern claims from the Global Cricket Corporation (GCC) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) arising out of the 2003 World Cup and relations with the players’ association.
GCC, which purchased the marketing and broadcasting rights from the ICC over a period of four years for a reported US$55 million, is seeking compensation for what it considers the failure of some teams to adhere to their agreements on sponsorship and fixtures.
The BCCI is seeking to have independent arbitration to settle a related dispute over the withholding of its agreed participation fee because of the failure of several of its players to sign contracts for the tournament.
McClements said the meeting would also consider recommendations of how best to recognise and work with player associations, having already been through “a few different versions”. (Sunday Express)