By Carlena Knight
Cricket West Indies (CWI) CEO Johnny Grave has shared his pleasure with how the ongoing Under-19 ICC World Cup is progressing.
Grave, while speaking on the Good Morning JoJo Sports show on Friday, said that it has been smooth sailing thus far, which is something he is very appreciative of.
“Like every series, I am just relieved that thus far everything has been going well. We’ve had fantastic weather in Guyana, in St. Kitts, Trinidad and Antigua. We haven’t lost any overs or matches from rain. I think the players have clearly enjoyed playing cricket and the performances across all the fields has been outstanding, we have had very good wickets and yeah, I think, it has just been a massive achievement to be operational with the teams and the host countries,” Grave said.
The Caribbean, for the first time ever, was given the nod to host the 14th edition of the international youth competition which began on January 14.
Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and St Kitts and Nevis hosted the preliminary matches while Antigua and Barbuda have been hosting the Super eight matches which includes the quarter-finals, semis and finals at two venues, the Coolidge Cricket Grounds and the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium.
Grave highlighted that ‘massive credit’ must be given to the various health ministries of the host countries for not only keeping teams safe, but fans and other persons as well.
“Particularly, the ministries of health have been able to keep 500 people here in the region safe and being able to play cricket. It’s been a fantastic effort and I can’t thank the host governments or the operational medical teams enough for all their hard work and effort in doing the impossible, which is running the biggest ICC cricket event during a pandemic with a new variant.
“It’s been an outstanding achievement, and we just hope for a final week of good cricket and good games,” Grave added.
The semi-finals are expected to bowl off at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket stadium starting on Tuesday with England taking on Afghanistan.
Australia and India will play a day later in the second semi-final encounter while the finals will bowl off on Saturday at the same venue.