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| CEO of the Saint Lucia Local Organising Committee (LOC), Ernest Hilaire. |
One month and a day after its Group Stage matches concluded, Saint Lucia steps back into the international spotlight for ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 tomorrow to host its last tournament match a highly anticipated Semi-Final between archrivals, Australia and South Africa.
While thousands around the world are focusing on the expected on-field fireworks, Saint Lucias Local Organising Committee (LOC) is concentrating on ensuring that all aspects of its Match Day management are carried out to the highest standard for the all-important game which will decide the second finalist of the Event.
Scores of LOC personnel, volunteers, staff of the Host Broadcaster (the Global Cricket Corporation), caterers, cleaners, grounds staff and officials in other functional areas were today busy fine-tuning preparations at Beausejour Cricket Ground.
We are generally okay with our preparations. Weve already had six (Group Stage) matches so we basically know how things will unfold tomorrow. Its just that we expect it to be more hectic as we will have thousands of fans coming in very early in the morning at both airports as well as on cruise ships, said LOC CEO, Ernest Hilaire.
Because this is such a big match, we know our security will have to be enhanced but we have support from South Africa and from CARICOM (Caribbean Community) and we are confident that everything will be fine.
We also know that our traffic management will be a challenge but again the assistance from regional and South African forces will help us with this.
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| Grounds staff at Beausejour Cricket Ground get the pitch ready for tomorrows ICC CWC 2007 Semi-Final. |
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| The eyes of the worlds cricketing media are focused on the Australia-South Africa ICC CWC 2007 Semi-Final. |
Disclosing that only a couple hundred tickets are now left for sale, Hilaire noted that once all ticket holders turn up, we will have a large crowd . More than 18,000 tickets have been sold or distributed for tomorrows match.
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| South African captain, Graeme Smith, in an interview. |
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| Australian fast bowler, Glenn McGrath, warms up with some tennis at practice. |
We had a lot of music and excitement during the Group Stage. There was a great buzz and we expect this will be even greater for the Semi-Final, added the LOC CEO.
Meanwhile, both teams went through their final paces today with practice sessions at the stadium. South African captain, Graeme Smith, is confident his men can turn the tables on the Australians who won the Group Stage encounter against the Proteas at Warner Park in St. Kitts.
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| Engineer for Host Broadcaster, Global Cricket Corporation (GCC) Darshana Senaratne of Sri Lanka fixes the wires for the stump microphone/camera. |
His opposite number, Ricky Ponting, is zeroing in on a third successive ICC Cricket World Cup title for his country which triumphed in the 1999 and 2003 tournaments.
