BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE noise makers and steel pan will soon be gathering their noise to rally around the West Indies in St. Kitts, as it was announced this week that tickets for women’s matches of the ICC World Twenty20 to be held at Warner Park should be available by next week.
Though some technical delays have prevented tickets from being made available to the general public as yet, the local organizing committee for the matches in St. Kitts announced in a press conference this week that tickets should be available beginning Monday (Apr. 19).
While all 12 matches to be played at Warner Park between May 5 and May 10 are entirely free to the public, tickets are required to enter the stadium and can be picked up at the ticket office at East Park Range, adjacent to the National Housing Corporation.
“One thing that we want the public to know specifically is that it is open seating, so once you get a ticket you are only going to be restricted from the restricted areas,” Corporate Communications Officer Clement O’Garro stated at the press conference.
Because the tickets are available freely, Event Manager Val Henry stated that there may be a limit on the total number of tickets available to a single household for any given match. He noted that the planning committee did not want persons to take tickets and then not show up on match day.
In addition to tickets for the public, the organizing committee said it had made a great effort toward involving the nation’s youth in the world class event and approximately 25 tickets per match day would be made available to each and every school in the Federation.
Tickets were also given to various cricket academies and programmes, as well as to the cricket associations and governments on both St. Kitts and Nevis.
Women have been especially targeted to witness the preliminary rounds of the tournament, and according to Henry it is the hope of the ICC that “the hosting of the tournament here will reignite the high spirit of women’s cricket we once had in St. Kitts”.
Hard ball cricket is not currently played by women in St. Kitts-Nevis, but many pundits have expressed hope that the tournament would inspire mechanisms to be put in place after the event to nurture the sport within the Federation’s borders.
Apart from ticketing, the local organizing committee said that the popular ‘Bring It!’ tour bus promotion would continue in the weeks leading up to the tournament, with stops planned for Sandy Point, Old Road and Cayon.
While logistics and scheduling are proving problematic, O’ Garro said that the committee was working diligently to secure a local performance of the ‘Bring It!’ tournament song by Mr. Vegas and Faye Ann Lyons.
Female teams from West Indies and Sri Lanka are currently in the Federation and will engage each other in a series of warm-up One Day International and Twenty20 matches in the weeks leading up to the tournament.
During that same time, the teams from England, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa and Pakistan will arrive and begin their training camps at local cricket grounds.
Match Schedule:
Wednesday, May 5
West Indies v. South Africa
England v. Australia
Thursday, May 6
Sri Lanka v. Pakistan
New Zealand v. India
Friday, May 7
Australia v. South Africa
England v. West Indies
Saturday, May 8
India v. Pakistan
New Zealand v. Sri Lanka
Sunday, May 9
England v. South Africa
Australia v. West Indies
Monday, May 10
New Zealand v. Pakistan
India v. Sri Lanka
