BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - MINISTER OF SPORT, Jonel Powell has expressed positive views that Warner Park would be one of the chosen venues to stage matches during next year’s International Cricket Council’s Under-19 World Cup to be played in the region.
Just recently a team of venue inspectors visited Warner Park to review conditions since a bid was placed for games to be played in the Federation, and based on that review the Minister has expressed a sense of optimism.
Updating reporters on the review, Powell explained that the ICC team visited and inspected conditions around the Federation for two days and the Ministry, through the Department of Sport, is expected to hear from the officials shortly on whether the bid was successful.
St. Kitts and Nevis may be one of the front runners to stage games during the premier junior cricket showpiece, as the Federation had successfully staged the entire season of the Caribbean Premier League at Warner Park without any outbreak of the Coronavirus on the island.
Only two cases were detected and they were persons who arrived and went directly into room quarantine.
This is the first time that the Caribbean will be hostng the ICC U-19 CWC and it will be staged in either January or February of next year across the region.
The tournament will feature 16 teams from around the world, including the host.
Thus far, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe have qualified for the tournament.
According to media reports, the tournament is likely to be staged across three territories in the 50-over format. A number of territories have submitted their bis to stage the event, but the logistics of travelling across borders with the COVID-19 pandemic factoring in may prove a challenge for a number of them and the young cricketers.
Currently, a number of territories have strict quarantine measures in place and have also seen an uptick in the number of positive cases.
A decision on venues is expected to be announced before the year is completed.
The successful staging of this format of the sport will be the fifth major tournament to be staged within the region to go along with the ICC 2007 Men’s World Cup, the 2010 Men’s and Women T20 World Cup and the stand alone 2018 Women’s T20 World Cup.
