KINGSTOWN, St Vincent, (CMC) - Lennox John, the president of the Windward Islands Cricket Association, is fuming over last week’s announcement that Barbados and St Lucia merged their bids to stage matches in the ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007.
John, whose native St Vincent & the Grenadines is among the countries bidding to stage matches, says they were not aware that joint bids would have been allowed.
“We had inquired if that was possible and we were told that it was not possible to have joint bids,” John told CMC Radio Sports on Monday.
He added: “If you were bidding, you would have to bid on your own. If another territory was helping out, that territory could not bid because they became a part the bid.”
Chris Dehring, managing director of the ICC CWC WI 2007, indicated John and others might have misunderstood comments to the effect that “collaborative approaches were not necessarily needed”.
“The ICC CWC WI 2007 Inc. is looking to marrying all the resource of the region, so collaboration was not necessary, but we did not rule it out,” Dehring told CMC Sportswire.
“What we did not wish to see was collusion versus collaboration, where there might have been countries undermining the bid process. All aspects of the proposals are merely that - proposals.
“Our venue assessment team will be analysing everything and recommending to utilise all of the assets that the countries are willing to put at our disposal.”
Dehring noted that countries might presume that they have entered a joint bid, but it was up to the venue assessment team to determine if their proposals meet the criteria.
“I don’t know what is meant by a ‘joint bid’ and St Lucia and Barbados have submitted individual bid submissions,” he said.
“The two countries may have a collaborative approach in terms of the spirit of what we are trying to accomplish, but they have individually submitted what they believed to be the best proposals for their countries.”
Last Thursday, the deadline date for submission of offers to host events in the CWC 2007, St Lucia and Barbados announced that they would jointly bid to host a package of matches that included the final and the semifinal.
“It was really surprising to hear that there was a joint bid,” John said. “It does not matter to me who are the countries. I have no beef against St Lucia or Barbados, although if we knew that joint bids would have been accepted, we would have collaborated with the other Windward Islands.”
John believed that it was too late for SVG to consider a joint bid for the simple reason that the deadline for submissions had passed.
“It would have had to form part of your bid and would have entailed discussion about what matches you were bidding for and how you were going to share them,” he said.
“We did not go that far at all. We thought we were on firm foundation.
Barring some intervention from ICC CWC WI 2007 Inc., there is nothing we can do.”
John indicated SVG were hoping to gain a package of matches that would include hosting the Super Eights (or quarterfinals).
“I am happy with the bid that SVG presented nonetheless,” he said. “We like everybody else have our own challenges, but our bid tries to overcome those challenges.”
Drawing the analogy of a cricket team, Dehring explained that to build a winning side every individual strength and weakness had to be assessed and the bid process was the way ICC CWC WI 2007 chose to gather information about each country’s fitness.