By Neto Baptiste
Cricket West Indies (CWI) Chief Executive Officer Johnny Grave, is hoping that by next week, a full schedule of matches and host venues for the 2022 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup scheduled for the Caribbean in January could be released.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show, Grave said a number of logistical issues are still being discussed with the ICC and some members but assures decisions will be made shorty.
“We’ve probably done about 400 different schedules involving many different teams and combinations of teams but we’re very much hopeful now that we can get absolute clarity from the ICC and the full members that are due to participate that they will be able to come to the Caribbean,” he said.
“New Zealand have confirmed a few weeks ago that they were pulling out of the event due to the 14 day mandatory quarantine that all their under-19 players would have to go through on their own in government facilities on their return New Zealand. Clearly, the situation in Australia and New Zealand is now changing in a slightly more positive way, so it may well be that those teams come back so we’ve asked the ICC to give us a deadline of today [October 22] to confirm whether we’re operating on a 16-team or 14-team tournament,” he added.
Next year’s event will be the 14th edition of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup, and the first to be held in the West Indies.
Grave said the aim is to put on a spectacular show, West Indian style, for what is expected will be thousands of viewers.
“As you can imagine, trying to run a tournament of that scale where you’ve got 16 teams and six weeks of cricket played across probably four countries — and we all know that in most parts of the world, doing business and operating around the festive period is never easy — so we need to get on and make decisions and look forward to hosting another global event and showcasing everything that the Caribbean can do, both in terms of running these high profile global events to a very, very high standard as well as showing all the best of the Caribbean through the millions who will be watching on TV,” the CEO said.
In March 2021, Cricket West Indies confirmed that the format would be the same as previous editions, with teams competing to progress to the Plate and Super League phases of the tournament.
Bangladesh are the defending champions.