Chaos feared for Guyana stadium

Georgetown, Guyana
March 26, 2007

Article at: The Age

WORLD Cup organisers have warned of potential chaos at super eight matches in Guyana because the Providence Stadium here is still not ready despite years of planning.

The local organising committee and World Cup chiefs are already at loggerheads over the $US25 million ($A31 million) venue.

On Friday, World Cup organisers relieved the local organising committee of control of the ground, with a British company taking charge in an effort to salvage the project ahead of Wednesday's match between South Africa and Sri Lanka.

Among the myriad of problems at the venue, which is the only one on the South American mainland, are failures to provide security and crowd control turnstiles, poor accreditation facilities and video boards. Power shortages also are expected to blight the venue.

Local media also have reported that Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad, which hosted first-round games, and Jamaica's Trelawny Stadium, where warm-up matches were played, are on stand-by to stage the six matches planned for Georgetown.

■Opener Ed Joyce hit 75 to help England into the super eights with a seven-wicket win over Kenya in a rain-affected World Cup group C decider in Gros Islet, St Lucia, yesterday (Melbourne time).

Dublin-born Joyce, who made 66 against Canada last Sunday, combined with Kevin Pietersen (56 not out) to eliminate the Africans with 10 overs to spare and set up a super eight match against Ireland in Guyana on Friday.

England's Andrew Flintoff, back after being dropped because of a drinking scandal, had taken two wickets earlier to help limit Kenya to 177.

The match, which started two hours late, was reduced to 43 overs-a-side because of overnight rain but Kenya captain Steve Tikolo sprung a surprise by electing to bat.

"We were good today. When you come up against a potential banana skin, you just want the basics done right and be very professional," England captain Michael Vaughan said. "Bowling first was want we wanted to do."

Tikolo defended his decision to bat. "I thought the wicket looked fairly good for batting," he said. "The decision to bat was valid, we just didn't get partnerships going, we lost wickets at regular intervals."

Tikolo's choice backfired when a James Anderson delivery kept low to bowl opener Ravi Shah for four in the fifth over. Clever field placings contributed to the downfalls of Maurice Ouma and Tony Suji, who came into the side for opener David Obuya.

Another low delivery from Paul Collingwood undid Tanmay Mishra, who chopped a cut on to the stumps for a duck taking the score to 4-74.

A mix-up with Tikolo led to Collins Obuya being run out for 10 before all-rounder Flintoff trapped Thomas Odoyo leg before wicket. Flintoff nearly had two more wickets, with another excellent lbw shout and Tikolo being badly dropped by Joyce at mid-on, before Jimmy Kamande was bowled by Collingwood's slower ball.

"When you have your premier all-rounder back in your team, you look a better team for that," Vaughan said of Flintoff.

Despite bowling out a side for the first time in this World Cup, England's attack was inconsistent and leaked 22 sundries, including eight no balls.

England's run chase had a stuttering start, with Vaughan out for one as he struggled with his one-day form. AGENCIES

YESTERDAY (Hayden 101, Clarke 92, Ponting 91; Hall 2-60) d South Africa 294 (de Villiers 92, Smith 74; Hogg 3-61).

Australia 6-377

England 3-178 (Joyce 75, Pietersen 56no; Tikolo 1-18) d Kenya 177 (Tikolo 76; Anderson 2-27).

PLAYED OVERNIGHTQueen's Park Oval, Port of Spain

Bangladesh v Bermuda

SUPER EIGHTS(11.15pm Tuesday, Melbourne time)

March 27

West Indies v Australia, Antigua

March 28South Africa v Sri Lanka, Guyana

March 29West Indies v New Zealand, Antigua

March 30Ireland v England, Guyana

March 31Australia v Bangladesh*, Antigua

April 1West Indies v Sri Lanka, Guyana

April 2Bangladesh* v NZ, Antigua

April 3Ireland v South Africa, Guyana

April 4England v Sri Lanka, Antigua

April 7Bangladesh* v South Africa, Guyana

April 8Australia v England, Antigua

April 9Ireland v NZ, Guyana

April 10West Indies v South Africa, Grenada

April 11England v Bangladesh*, Barbados

April 12Sri Lanka v NZ, Grenada

April 13Australia v Ireland, Barbados

April 14South Africa v NZ, Grenada

April 15Bangladesh* v Ireland, Barbados

April 16Australia v Sri Lanka, Grenada

April 17South Africa v England, Barbados

April 18Ireland v Sri Lanka, Grenada

April 19West Indies v Bangladesh*, Barbados

April 20Australia v NZ, Grenada

April 21West Indies v England, Barbados

SEMI-FINALSJamaica

April 24

April 25 St Lucia

FINALBarbados

April 28

*Provided Bangladesh defeats Bermuda overnight. If not, India replaces Bangladesh.