BRIDGETOWN – Bar­ba­dos’ Prime Min­is­ter Mia Mot­t­ley has laud­ed the coun­try’s “high lev­el of or­gan­i­sa­tion” af­ter Kens­ing­ton Oval was award­ed the fi­nal of this year’s Twen­ty20 World Cup.

In a state­ment on Fri­day, Mot­t­ley said the coun­try had “firm­ly es­tab­lished it­self as a crick­et­ing mec­ca” while the sto­ried Kens­ing­ton Oval had ce­ment­ed its place among the world’s lead­ing sport­ing venues.

The In­ter­na­tion­al Crick­et Coun­cil an­nounced Fri­day that Bar­ba­dos could host the fi­nal of the June 1-29 show­piece, in ad­di­tion to three Su­per Eight, sec­ond-round games and five group stage match­es.

“It is with a sense of pride and ex­cite­ment that I join crick­et­ing fans here and across the re­gion, in cel­e­brat­ing Bar­ba­dos be­ing se­lect­ed to host the In­ter­na­tion­al Crick­et Coun­cil 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup Fi­nal,” Mot­t­ley said.

“That Bar­ba­dos will host this fi­nal, as well as eight oth­er games through­out the tour­na­ment, three of which are Su­per 8 (quar­ter-fi­nals) games, is noth­ing short of a priv­i­lege and an ho­n­our.

“It is a his­toric mo­ment for our coun­try as well, as this will be the third glob­al crick­et­ing fi­nal Kens­ing­ton Oval has host­ed, con­firm­ing its place among the world’s pre­mier sport­ing venues.

“As a Gov­ern­ment, we be­lieve this is a tes­ta­ment to the high lev­el of or­gan­i­sa­tion Bar­ba­dos has dis­played through­out the years, hav­ing host­ed the 2007 Men’s Crick­et World Cup Fi­nal and the 2010 Men’s T20 World Cup Fi­nal.”

Bar­ba­dos will be one of six Caribbean host venues for the ninth edi­tion of the ICC T20 World Cup, with An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, Guyana, Trinidad and To­ba­go, St Lu­cia and St Vin­cent and the Grenadines all host­ing match­es.

Do­mini­ca had al­so been an­nounced as a host venue but pulled out last month, cit­ing in­suf­fi­cient time to com­plete re­quired sta­di­um up­grades.

Bar­ba­dos will wel­come its first group stage game on June 2 when Namib­ia clash with Oman, and will al­so stage two of World cham­pi­ons Eng­land’s games – against Scot­land on June 4 and a block­buster against Aus­tralia on June 8.

“It is equal­ly a re­flec­tion of the fact that crick­et is in­trin­si­cal­ly linked to the iden­ti­ty of Bar­ba­dos. Quite sim­ply, it is in our DNA,” Mot­t­ley con­tin­ued.

“Through­out our his­to­ry, our na­tion has firm­ly es­tab­lished it­self as a crick­et­ing mec­ca, pro­duc­ing some of the great­est male and fe­male play­ers to have played the game, in­clud­ing the great­est crick­eter the world has ever seen, our Na­tion­al Hero The Right Ex­cel­lent Sir Garfield Sobers.”

The Oval, lo­cat­ed on the out­skirts of the city, will now un­der­go a mul­ti-mil­lion ren­o­va­tion in time for the T20 World Cup, and Mot­t­ley said col­lab­o­ra­tion with all stake­hold­ers was now cru­cial in or­der to make the ven­ture a suc­cess­ful one.

“The planned ren­o­va­tion of Kens­ing­ton Oval is tan­gi­ble ev­i­dence that Bar­ba­dos has al­ready start­ed its prepa­ra­tions,” she said.

“Over the com­ing months, we will con­tin­ue to work with all stake­hold­ers, in and out­side of the sport­ing are­na, to en­sure the thou­sands of fans who gath­er here from across the world ex­pe­ri­ence a safe, en­joy­able and suc­cess­ful tour­na­ment and fi­nal.

“On be­half of the Gov­ern­ment and all Bar­ba­di­ans, I wish to ex­press sin­cere thanks to the ICC and Crick­et West In­dies for se­lect­ing Bar­ba­dos and Kens­ing­ton Oval as the lo­ca­tion of choice to host this ICC 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup Fi­nal.

“As Bar­ba­di­ans, I say let us all work to­geth­er to make sure this tour­na­ment is a re­sound­ing suc­cess. And in so do­ing, let us re­flect the pride and in­dus­try we pos­sess as a peo­ple, and share it with the world.”

Guyana will host the first se­mi-fi­nal on June 26 while Trinidad and To­ba­go will stage the sec­ond se­mi-fi­nal the fol­low­ing day.

CMC