ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Providence preparations…

THERE was a hive of activity yesterday (Monday) at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, East Bank of Demerara with preparations for the Guyana leg of the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup, set for June 1-29, in full swing.

With 13 days to go before Guyana hosts its first match with the host West Indies facing off against Papua New Guinea, preparations for the 20-team tournament are expected to intensify from today.

Matches are scheduled for the West Indies and for the first time ever, a World Cup tournament will be staged in USA where 15 matches will be played at three venues.
Guyana will host five matches in the group stage while a semi-final likely involving India once they qualify, will be played at Providence on June 27.

Apart from the opening match, West Indies will battle Uganda on June 8 in their other match in Guyana.
In the other games set for Providence; Afghanistan plays Uganda (June 3), PNG faces Uganda (June 5), and New Zealand comes up against Afghanistan (June7)
With three stands already repainted in green, red and orange yesterday, other parts of the stadium were being re-painted, while there were repairs to elevators, the umpire’s room and several other areas of Guyana’s only international cricket ground.

In a slight drizzle, Head Curator Wasim Habib was busy driving the super sopper on the recently re-surfaced ‘square’ to remove excess water from the six pitches which were covered with grass.
Habib explained that the expected rainy season (May/June) will be advantageous to the ground which has been parched by the prolonged dry season.

“But the rain which has already begun, could affect the preparation of the pitch. We can’t cover the pitch if its wet. That’s why I was trying to remove as much moisture as I can with the Super Sopper,” informed the vastly experienced Habib.

The Curator from the East Coast of Demerara disclosed that while the same dirt from 2016 pitch was used to build the new ones, the process was different.
“We took out the sand put in gravel, then put the sand in and covered it with dirt. We will have to leave grass on all of the pitches used for World Cup matches since the ICC wants better pitches with more bounce and ‘carry’ which will be better to bat on,” disclosed Habib.

Habib, who says cricket is a batsman’s game expects the pitches at Providence to be 70 percent for the batters and 30 percent for the bowlers, adding, “I expect to score to be 180, 190.”
“We also don’t want 230, 240 totals, which will hard to chase down and make the games one-sided, especially for the lesser teams,” continued Habib, who added that T20 cricket is supposed to be exciting matches for the fans.

Meanwhile, Manager of the stadium Azad Ibrahim said that the preparation at all the venues (Everest, GCC & Police) is going according to plan, adding, “We are where we supposed to be based on the recommendation from ICC and CWI.”

“From today the real preparation commence where pitches will be covered and more intense preparation commences. The recent weather did wonders to the ground and outfield since due to lack of rain, the grounds were parched but now with this the weather pattern this is good for us and the ground is green again,” said Ibrahim.

Ibrahim, who is also the President of the GCA, said all works that had commenced will be completed before game day. “As a matter of fact, we hope to finish off all works by week end,” a confident Ibrahim said.