The iconic Kensington Oval is in its best condition in over a decade.
That is according to chairman of the local National Organising Committee (NOC), Noel Lynch, who today revealed that work at the ‘Mecca’ was fully completed, with the venue ready to welcome the thousands of spectators for next month’s ICC T20 World Cup.
Kensington Oval is scheduled to host nine matches in the June 1 to 29 tournament, including the semifinals and finals.
Speaking during a press conference at Cricket Legends this afternoon, Lynch said Kensington Oval was ‘World Cup ready’.
“Kensington Oval is ready. We can play cricket there tomorrow. Barbados may be the most prepared venue in this whole World Cup series. We are going to host the best World Cup cricket ever,” Lynch maintained.
Fresh off qualification for the Women's T20 World Cup, Sri Lanka will host West Indies for three ODIs and three T20Is from June 15-28.
For Sri Lanka, the tour will primarily serve as preparation for the T20 Asia Cup, also to be hosted in Sri Lanka, starting July 20. It will be their second bilateral T20I series this year, following their successful tour of South Africa across March and April. They are also set to tour Ireland in August.
As for West Indies, they just concluded a month-long tour of Pakistan where they won both ODI and T20I series. As things stand, this will be their last competitive games before the World Cup in October.
Regional security specialists began meeting here on Tuesday to make this year’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup one of the safest sporting events in the Caribbean.
The experts gathered to finalise planning for next month’s tournament at a Sub-regional Technical Expert Meeting on ‘Enhancing Security Coordination for Major Sporting Events in the Caribbean’ which is being hosted at the National Council on Substance Abuse (NCSA) headquarters.
With less than a month before its start, the tournament has faced concerns over potential security threats, according to media reports. The reports said intelligence suggests pro-Islamic State media sources, including the Afghanistan-Pakistan branch IS-Khorasan, have incited violence against the sporting event.
The technical expert meeting here brings together security personnel, government officials and organisers from across the Caribbean to coordinate plans for a safe and successful June 2-29 tournament.
Areas being addressed include venue operations, crowd management, cybersecurity, counter-terrorism measures, crisis communications and contingency planning.
“Major sporting events provide a unique opportunity to promote a destination, generate significant economic and cultural opportunities, and promote development, particularly among young people,” she said. “But these benefits also come with significant security challenges, which have only become more complex through the years. The security aspects of co-hosting major sporting events, such as the T20 Cricket World Cup, also require significant collaboration and coordination among co-hosting countries to ensure the safety and success of the event.”
LONDON, (CMC) — West Indies Women Captain Hayley Matthews has won a third International Cricket Council Player of the Month award, following her outstanding all-round performances in the recent white-ball series against Pakistan Women.
The stylish, 26-year-old right-hander plundered two hundreds in the three-match One-Day International series to finish with 325 runs at an average of 162 while also taking six wickets, as the Caribbean side pulled off a whitewash in Karachi last month.
Matthews returned in the five Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) to gather 205 runs at an average of 41, and took another six wickets to steer her side to a comfortable 4-1 series win.
The Player of the Month award for the Barbadian follows those she won in October 2023 and November 2021.
“I am really happy to win the award again. These performances resulted in the team’s success — and that’s the most important thing for me as captain,” said Matthews.
A six-wicket haul from Kemar Roach propelled Surrey to a nine-wicket win over Warwickshire on day four of their County Championship Division One clash at the Kennington Oval in London on Monday.
Roach took figures of 6-46 off 14 overs to restrict Warwickshire to 209 all out in 59 overs in their second innings, leaving Surrey needing only 89 to win.
Dom Sibley with 46* and Rory Burns with 30 then led the way as Surrey reached 89-1 in the 23rd over.
Earlier in the game, Warwickshire made 343 in 102.5 overs in their first innings thanks to an excellent 108 from Ed Barnard.
Roach also took 2-81 in the first innings in support of Jordan Clark and Sean Abbott who took 4-64 and 2-51, respectively.
