A British Broadcasting Corporation report which said that Caribbean countries seeking to host matches of the 2007 World Cup will have to submit documents charting ten-year weather patterns has been described as a possible "knee-jerk" reaction by a Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) official.
The BBC reported on its website that "...Islands in the Caribbean bidding to host World Cup matches in 2007 have been asked to submit documents charting ten-year weather patterns."
According to the report, the International Cricket Council (ICC) may also elect to bring the World Cup forward from its expected slot from late March into May.
Contacted yesterday for a comment the official said the GCB was unaware of a request for documents showing the weather pattern for Guyana over the next ten years.
The official said the request was probably made to the local organising committee of Guyana's 2007 World Cup bid.
Efforts to contact chairman of that committee, Minister responsible for Sport, Gail Teixeira, for a comment proved futile. Teixeira was in a meeting up to late last night.
Bid Preparation Officer Phillip Allsopp told Stabroek Sports he was busy with preparations for the submission of Guyana's official bid which must be submitted before 7.30 pm tomorrow.
The GCB official said he feels the report was a reaction to the three matches of the current Cable and Wireless one-day series between England and the West Indies which had been affected by rain, raising fears of a similar type of weather when World Cup 2007 comes around.
This has been supported by the BCC's report.
According to the BBC, "organisers are desperate to avoid a similar calamity when cricket's showpiece tournament hits the region."
ICC spokesman Jon Long told BBC Sport: "There is a quarterly board meeting of the 2007 World Cup organising committee. "It's possible that dates will be on the agenda but no decision has yet been made about which months the tournament will take place in."
The request for a ten-year weather pattern was not a recent mandate, he added.
"It is part of the tender document that all the bidding islands have to provide," he said.