Spooner: Venues Ready To Host ICC Women’s T20 Matches

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Media Manager at Cricket West Indies (CWI) Inc., Philip Spooner, said venues earmarked to host matches in the 2018 ICC Women’s World T20 are in pristine condition and ready for the International event.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports show here, Spooner expressed confidence that if the tournament were to bowl off immediately, all three venues would be ready to host.
“All three of these venues were obviously fashioned for Cricket World Cup 2007 so they are ready for international cricket and you can play an international cricket match any day of the week at any time at these venues. It’s just a matter of getting the small bits put together properly which we’re very close to completing now,” he said.
“The national stadium in Guyana, Darren Sammy Grounds in St. Lucia and obviously the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground here in Antigua [they are all ready]. Warm up matches will be at Coolidge at what was formerly known as the Stanford Cricket Ground, now known as the Coolidge Cricket Ground so everything is getting there, we are very close. If a match had to play today for whatever reason, we could play,” he added.
The official went on to credit grounds staff at the CWI’s recently acquired Coolidge Cricket Ground here, for the work they have done in bringing the facility back to international standard.
“Credit must go to the ground staff at Coolidge for doing a fantastic job, they work hard and when you go there you see them every day putting in the hard work and then you see the benefit of the hard work so top marks to them for that. From a Cricket West Indies and ICC perspective, we’re happy with it,” Spooner said.
“The ultimate is to play in the best facility, and players want to express their skills on the best grounds, the best fields with the best officials and everything. The last thing you want to see is a team lose and then say, oh well we didn’t like the pitch and we could have done better with the dressing room but we believe things are up to scratch here in Antigua and from reports that we have received in St. Lucia and Guyana, things are also up to shape,” he added.   
This year’s tournament will run from 9th to 24 November and will be the sixth edition of the ICC Women’s World Twenty20, and the second hosted by the West Indies (after the 2010 edition). 
All matches, Spooner said, will be televised.
“And the big advantage there is, is that all of the matches will be televised. In the Caribbean it’s on ESPN, in the U.S. it’s on Willow and a few people would have Willow TV here in Antigua. I am not sure if it will be jail-blocked but it’s available on ESPN so that’s 23 matches, live. Before, some of the matches were televised, not all, but now they are all televised so that’s a huge advantage with a two hundred and fifty million audience which is an anticipated minimum,” he said.
“If you get a perfect storm where West Indies meets India in the finals then you could get half billion people watching so these are huge numbers that honestly, there are not many other events in the Caribbean that can rival these kind of numbers,” the media manager said.
Fans can purchase tickets starting October 29 at the Coolidge Cricket Ground and the ticketing booth east of the Antigua Recreation Grounds (ARG).

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