The extension was made to facilitate cricket fans buying tickets after regular working hours and to boost sales as Phase Two of the public ticketing comes to a close on November 30, Chateram Ramdihal, Finance Manager of the CWC 2007 Local Organising Committee (LOC) said. Phase two started on September 1.

Speaking at a media briefing at the LOC Office in Georgetown yesterday, Ramdihal said that the decision to open on Saturdays was to accommodate working persons without access to internet facilities. In addition the majority of Guyanese do not have credit cards with which to purchase online.

From Mondays to Fridays, the Ticketing Office would be open from 8 am to 5 pm. In addition persons could make enquiries at the ticketing office, telephone number 225-9210.

Meanwhile, ICC CWC 2007 West Indies Inc Project Officer with responsibility for ticketing, Delroy Taylor told the Stabroek News in an interview from Jamaica that Guyana ticket sales after Phase One and into Phase Two of public ticketing is "moderate" or just about 55%.

Sales in Phase One amounted to just about 45% of public sales. Phase Three of public ticketing starts in January 2007 and goes to April 28, 2007.

Taylor said that while sales are better in the diaspora, he could not say there was a similar response in the Caribbean but that "sales were moderate in the Caribbean. For Guyana we find that 55% of the public tickets were sold. That is considered moderate."

Urging people to buy tickets he repeated lines that are being repeated by other ICC CWC officials and sponsors that the event, the third largest sporting event in the world and the largest cricketing event, may not return to the Caribbean in a lifetime. "It is going to be colourful, a spectacle and will highlight the Caribbean as a centre of unity for the first time. Everyone has a part to play," he said.

Asked how sales were going in the Caribbean, he said that the ICC CWC 2007 West Indies Inc had expected that the popular matches would sell early in the public ticketing but "they are being sold, moderately." He noted that as the tournament progresses the matches become better.

In St Kitts, which is hosting Group Stage matches and where the venue is smaller than most other venues, the sales are "above moderate." St Lucia's sales for the Group Stage are moderate but the semi-final match there is sold out.

Sales for the Jamaica matches in the group stages are moderate but like St Lucia tickets for the semi-final match there are "at present, not available."

Asked what he meant by "not available", Taylor said that at some venues where tickets have been sold out provisions are being put in place to increase the seating capacity to accommodate more spectators.

Public tickets are not available for the matches in Antigua and Barbuda, which is hosting six of the Super Eight matches; and Barbados, which is hosting six Super Eight matches and the Final Match.

Since plans are in place to increase seating capacity in some venues where tickets are currently not available, Taylor said that persons are advised to continue going on line and looking to see if and when seats become available to those venues.

At venues where sales are moderate or below expectation, Taylor said that one of the things the ICC CWC 2007 WI Inc has done was to increase the amount of tickets that any one person could buy per match. While in the first stage a person from one address could only buy four tickets and only two persons were allowed to buy tickets from one particular address, in Phase Two, from one particular address, as many as 28 tickets could be bought but only for the warm up matches. In the group stage one person could now buy ten tickets, and for the Super Eight matches, eight.

Taylor said that while a lot of persons the USA, UK, Australia and India have bought tickets for the matches the sales from among Caricom nationals "is moderate. It is not great. One of the things we realize is that with the Caribbean, we tend to do things last minute. This is our main concern."

He said, too, that there is a lot of misconception about the ticketing process and inflated prices. While some people are saying that the price for tickets to all the matches is US$300, he said that the US$300 applies only to the most expensive seating tickets for the finals in Barbados.