Barbadians will not be disadvantaged in the ticketing process for the forthcoming T20 Cricket World Cup.
In an exclusive interview with Weekend Sport, head of the National Organising Committee (NOC), Noel Lynch, said they had made it clear to the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Cricket West Indies (CWI) that Barbadians should get a fair allocation of tickets for the June 1-29 event.
“The ballot process was done and a lot of people went online and couldn’t get tickets. We have railed on the ICC and Cricket West Indies that a certain number of tickets must be made available to Barbadians and that Barbadians must be able to find some mechanism.
“If you can’t do it online and many people may not have the technology to do it, one thing that must happen is, there must be a manual process,“ he said.
Lynch said he didn’t want avid cricket fans left in the cold.
“The man who watches cricket every Saturday at Empire or at Spartan, and doesn’t have a chance, feels that he is left out of the game. There are some people who like Test cricket, some are into 50-over cricket but no doubt there are many who want to see T20 cricket well,’’ he said.
Lynch was adamant that Barbadians will not be denied a fair chance of purchasing tickets for the nine World Cup matches, including the final, that are scheduled for Kensington Oval.
“The Prime Minister has said not in our backyard. That wouldn’t happen here. That will not happen in Barbados,’’ he said.
Lynch said that for that reason, a manual box is being set up in territories around the region, where fans can go and buy a ticket outside of the online facilities.
The former Cabinet minister said the various NOCs would follow and track that process.
“We will be asking for statistics to tell us how many people went on-line from the Caribbean, how many people were denied through the ballot and once we get those statistics, we are going to create some mechanism . . . [to have a clearer picture],”he said.
Lynch said that some agencies such as the Ministries of Education and Labour, along with the small business sector, are on board.
“We are going to be meeting with all of them, but one of the things that must be done is that once you get all of Barbados involved in this World Cup, we are going to ensure that benefits do accrue to them, even if not immediately but in the longer term.”
Lynch said it was important that Barbadians feel they have a stake in the World Cup.
“The World Cup is owned by ICC and CWI, but we are facilitating the staging of the World Cup but it can only be facilitated in a way that Barbadians can feel they benefit and can get a benefit now or in the future.
“You can’t come to my backyard and have a tournament and my people don’t feel they can get something
out of it. That will not happen under our watch.’’
Lynch said that Kensington Oval is about 60 per cent complete and he expects Barbados to deliver the facility even before the April 30 deadline.
He is predicting a hand-over of the facility to ICC by April 15.
Lynch mentioned that work was progressing well at the warm-up facilities – Three Ws Oval, Windward and Weymouth. He added that Windward was almost at 90 per cent.
Barbados is hosting nine matches, five of them at the group stage.
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