by PHILIP SPOONER

GRENADA will host the Windward Islands Cricket Tournament in November in October to showcase the island's readiness to stage matches in next year's International Cricket Council's World Cup.

Speaking to MIDWEEKSPORTS, Roy O'Neale, chief executive of the Grenada local organising committee said the preparations were ahead of schedule and Grenadians were excited about the possibilities for next year.

"The ground will be handed over on October 2 and a schedule of matches including the Windward Islands matches will be played in October. That's ideal preparation to test the Queen's Park Stadium as we get ready for the World Cup," O'Neale said.

He was in Barbados on Monday for a series of meetings of the nine chief executive officers of the local organising committee, preparing for the March 5 to April 28 tournament.

"We will also play at LaSagesse and Progress Park, which are the training venues. The new schedules show that the ground will be handed over in October and new pavilions are being built at the training venues. Believe it or not, we will not be using Tanteen for training sessions. That ground is being used as a car park."

O'Neale was speaking at the Savannah Hotel, and he noted that if all went well, the project in Grenada would be completed on time, "in keeping with international standards".

Organisers had originally hoped to stage local club matches, this month, but these will now be held in September, said Aalon Robinson, project manager for the rebuilding of the 20 000-seat facility at Queen's Park, outside the capital St George's.

Robinson said they were revising the schedule for ground preparations to get back on the original timeline. China was helping to pay for the Queen's Park Stadium, which was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. There are 520 Chinese workers who were involved in the construction, according to O'Neale. Grenada will stage Super 8 matches from April 10 to 20.

"The Chinese are getting the job done. We had a slow start, for various reasons, one being when we had the diplomatic change from Taiwan to mainland China. They had a switch in design, which was taken over from Arup Associates [of Britain]," O'Neale said.

Beyond imagination

"Things have improved as the Chinese increased their capacity. The latest images show that the improvements are beyond imagination. No one thought we would have reached this stage by now."

O'Neale admitted that there were some sticky issues, however. He said housing the visitors could be a headache, but not a nightmare.

"Part of the problem was as a result of the destruction by Ivan. In any case Grenada did not have that many rooms. The hoteliers are building back better without a doubt. We have a pretty active home-stay programme. As at last count we had just under 1 000 rooms available for the World Cup."

O'Neale said the Grenadians would be exploring the option of using cruise ships, and had also approached the Barbados local organising committee to look at forming an alliance to manage the situation.

"We looked at the cruise ship option and we have also looked at working with Barbados, because our matches are staged on alternate days," he said.

"At the present time the Tourism authorities of both countries and the local organising committees of both countries are talking with a view of getting this to work.

"So, hopefully, as the number of home rooms increase, we will be able to supply the accommodation needed for the thousands of visitors we will have coming to our side of the world."