Jamaica
News - Real Estate - Sports
Source: Jamaica Gleaner, Daraine Luton, March
14, 2007)
Brilliant start - West Indies win Cup
opener - Jamaica gets high marks from ICC boss
Malcolm Speed, the
chief executive officer of the International Cricket Council (ICC), has
expressed great satisfaction with Jamaica's preparation for the Cricket World
Cup which started with aplomb for the West Indies at Sabina Park yesterday.
"I am very impressed with what I have
seen, and impressed with the facilities," Mr. Speed stated at Sabina Park
where the West Indies opened their account with a win over Pakistan in the
tournament's first game.
Thousands of persons, most of them Jamaicans,
including politicians and public sector workers, turned up to watch as a Cricket
World Cup pitch was sampled for the first time in the Caribbean.
Speed, who was among those to see history
unfold, commented that "the atmosphere here is great and the people are
lovely ... and the grounds are beautiful."
Jamaica, which successfully staged the opening
ceremony on Sunday at the Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium, is hosting Ireland,
Pakistan, Zimbabwe along with the West Indies here.
Over J$8 billion has been invested by the
Government for the hosting of the tournament, with most of the spending going
towards the building of the new stadium in Trelawny and the renovation of Sabina
Park.
Mr. Speed said he is not surprised by what
Jamaica has delivered to the region.
PREPARATIONS
"I have been coming to board meetings to
discuss Cricket World Cup preparations every quarter for the three years and I
know the tremendous amount of hard work that has gone into the planning.
"I would have been surprised if there had
been problems," he said as a Pakistan wicket fell.
Senior Superintendent of Police, Ealan Powell,
said the day went "exceptionally well security-wise".
"There was no serious breach of security
and there was no major traffic concern," said SSP Powell, who is deputy
chair of both the security and traffic management committees of the Cricket
World Cup.
Over 16,000 tickets were sold for the game and
except for a few hundred empty chairs, Sabina Park was well populated. Of note,
however, the sea of Pakistan supporters that was anticipated did not materialise
as just a few hundred turned up.
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