Cricket fans will get a glimpse of reigning champion England and current One Day winner Australia in T&T ahead of the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup, which will start in 60 days in the West Indies and the United States of America.
Australia is one of the ten teams confirmed to play warm-up matches in T&T. New Zealand and hosts West Indies will also play matches in T&T at either of the following venues - the Queen’s Park Oval in St Clair, Port-of-Spain, Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba, San Fernando, the University of the West Indies Sport and Physical Education Centre in St Augustine and Diego Martin Sports Complex, Diego Martin.
The other ten teams that are participating in the 20-team World Cup will play their warm-up matches in Fort Lauderdale, USA.
India, Pakistan, South Africa, USA, Canada, Netherlands, Nepal, Ireland, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh will play their matches in Florida.
This was revealed on Tuesday, as the Local Organising Committee held a media conference at the Queen’s Park Oval to update the public on the readiness and the plans for the World Cup.
Master of Ceremonies for the media conference, former West Indies manager Omar Khan said the teams will begin arriving for the world event on May 23.
“The official warm-up period is from the 25th to the 31st of May,” the former Red Force manager said.
Khan admitted it will be a huge undertaking to host ten teams in the country, saying: “We have the practice schedule in place that we’ll share later on. We have everything in place for hosting those ten teams.”
Uganda, Papua New Guinea, Afghanistan, Namibia, Oman, and Scotland are the other teams that will be playing warm-up matches in T&T.
Head of public relations, ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, Damon Leon, encouraged the public to go online for tickets and not simply wait until the box offices are opened.
“If you wait, the chances are that when the box offices open, they will not be available for supply,” said Leon as he encouraged all to get their tickets early online.
Leon also said it is not quite clear if matches will be televised in the territory where matches are being played as it will be “up to the broadcasters” who are ESPN.
This may also apply to ‘fan parks’ that will be set up as alternative venues where fans get memorabilia and other souvenirs of the World Cup. Matches may be shown live at the fan parks if there are sold-out crowds, but that is yet to be determined.
Venues and facilities manager, Haresh Ragoonath says the venues are progressing well and will be handed over in time.
“We have the three practice venues you expect, so those three venues are progressing quite nicely, pretty much everything is in place,” said Ragoonath.
