CASTRIES, St Lucia (CMC) – A bright picture is being painted ahead of the region’s hosting of the International Cricket Council’s World Twenty20 tournament next year.

“Overall my message to you and to the general public is that at this point we are feeling fairly comfortable with the state of preparations and readiness for the event itself,” Tournament Director Robert Bryan disclosed at a news conference here Wednesday.

Describing the news conference as a “year-end update”, Bryan stated that the four countries staging matches — Barbados, St Lucia, Guyana and St Kitts — were fortunate to already have facilities in place.

“The overall preparations in the region for the tournament we will characterise as doing well. Unlike 2007, we do not have physical facilities being built at this time. They have already been built and are pretty much up to the standards required for international competitions and therefore what is required is to tweak and overlay them in a manner that is consistent with what is required for World Twenty20,” he stated.

He added: “All of the physical facilities are proceeding very well – even requirements for the third and fourth dressing rooms. All the arrangements have been made to get those in place on time and we are at the phase right now of actually commissioning work to get that done by the latest early or mid-January.”

Commenting on issues related to field and pitch preparation, Bryan said a number of inspections have been done at the respective venues.

“Recommendations have been made as to what is required and at this point I can report that we are taking the necessary steps. We are comfortable that all the remedial action that is required to have the pitch and field facilities in tip top condition right across the region is being taken,” Bryan announced.

Bryan anticipates approval from the ICC authorities when final venue inspections are done late next month.

“We expect to have final venue inspections sometime towards the end of January when we expect that between the key members of the ICC we would be able to sign off on the absolute readiness and so forth of the physical and other preparations. And coming out of that we would then be expected to be in total implementation and roll out mode come February and March.”

Currently based in St Lucia, the Jamaican administrator said he was very encouraged by the actions of the stadium owners here.

“If you pass by Beausejour on any given day, you can see there is a significant amount of renovation work being done there to the stands, to the physical facilities, the establishment of storage. And work is going on with respect to the field and pitch and all the things required there,” he noted.

The Tournament Director said Saint Lucia had an added attraction with its annual Jazz festival being held at around that same time.

“Essentially there are 12 to 14 days of high level entertainment value that is going to be unfolding in Saint Lucia. What that does is offer an opportunity in St Lucia for an extremely high visibility because you would have two renowned events taking place at the same time.”

Focusing on other areas of logistics and supporting activities, Bryan claimed the volunteer programme was well activated and we’re currently finalising the appointment of accreditation services which should be completed by year-end. He was also upbeat with security plans for next year’s event.

“The master security plan is finished. We are focused now on rolling through details on an operational level within each host country.

All the various areas related to that are in place. In terms of the overall match schedules, we are pretty much signed away on most of the elements related to that. Issues related to accommodation and transportation are pretty much also nailed down,” he said.

Bryan told St Lucian journalists his team will be significantly stepping up its marketing presence across the region in January, after the Christmas holidays.

“We expect go roll out the main thrust of the marketing programme throughout the region and people can expect to see a greater presence of the event itself. That will also include more specific information as to procedures and the expectations in relation to general information the public would need to know in terms of the event.”

He warned the West Indian public to avoid what he called “wait-and-see last-minute” purchase of tickets.

“I would ask the public to reconsider their wait-and-see attitude as I would be sorry for people who wait too late and do not get a chance to share in this experience,” he said.