The International Cricket Council has given the highest rating to the new Sir Vivian Richards Stadium as one of the venues for the World Cup to be staged in the Caribbean next year.
The ground received the 'A' grade from a visiting ICC venue tour team. The stadium, one of the 12 venues being built or renovated for the mega event, will host six matches in the Super Eight stage.
"From what we have seen here, a tremendous amount of work has been done since we were last here in March and I can tell you that Antigua & Barbuda will for the first time get the highest ranking. We are very pleased with the work we have seen here, they are on schedule," Don Lockerbie, ICC CWC 2007 Chief Operations Officer and Venue Development Director, said.
The retaining walls on the east and west sides of the stadium will give a casualness and inviting atmosphere to the new stadium, he said.
The only area of concern to the visiting team is the consistency of the practice pitches and those at the new cricket ground.
{{/usCountry}}The only area of concern to the visiting team is the consistency of the practice pitches and those at the new cricket ground.
{{/usCountry}}"We are working closely with the grounds staff at all three sites and, as you can imagine, they all have different work styles. However, we need the pitches to be consistent and play in a similar manner. We are not asking that all the pitches at all the venues play the same but the practice pitches should not be so different from the venue pitch," Lockerbie added.