ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – Crick­et West In­dies said it “un­der­stood the po­si­tion” of Do­mini­ca’s gov­ern­ment which on Thurs­day pulled the plug on the coun­try’s host­ing of match­es in next year’s Twen­ty20 World Cup, due to chal­lenges with com­plet­ing venue up­grades in time for the glob­al show­piece.

Speak­ing af­ter Do­mini­ca’s gov­ern­ment made the an­nounce­ment, CWI chief ex­ec­u­tive John­ny Grave said: “We ac­knowl­edge the ded­i­ca­tion of the Gov­ern­ment of Do­mini­ca in prepar­ing to host match­es as a part of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.

“While rec­og­niz­ing their com­mit­ment, we note the rea­sons stat­ed for the de­ci­sion that has been made and un­der­stand the po­si­tion.

“We look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing to work with the Gov­ern­ment of Do­mini­ca and the Do­mini­ca Crick­et As­so­ci­a­tion to host in­ter­na­tion­al match­es in the fu­ture.”

The Do­mini­ca gov­ern­ment said work on the match venue Wind­sor Park and prac­tice venue Ben­jamin’s Park had be­gun but based on es­ti­mates from con­trac­tors, could not be com­plet­ed in time for the June 4-30 event.

In light of the “im­ple­men­ta­tion time­lines”, gov­ern­ment said it was “pru­dent” not to fol­low through on its com­mit­ment to host­ing games.

Do­mini­ca was one of sev­en host coun­tries se­lect­ed by the In­ter­na­tion­al Crick­et Coun­cil. The oth­ers were An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, Bar­ba­dos, Guyana, St Lu­cia, Trinidad and To­ba­go, and St Vin­cent & the Grenadines.

Fawwaz Baksh, tour­na­ment di­rec­tor for the World Cup, said there were al­ready con­tin­gency plans in place for such un­ex­pect­ed de­vel­op­ments.

“When host­ing tour­na­ments of this scale, it is in­evitable that cir­cum­stances will arise which will re­quire the or­gan­is­ers to adapt and al­ter plans,” he ex­plained.

“This is some­thing that hap­pens in any event of this na­ture, and why we have con­tin­gency plans for all func­tion­al ar­eas for the host­ing of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.”

Next year’s World Cup will al­so be co-host­ed by Unit­ed States, and will see sta­dia in in Dal­las, Fort Laud­erdale and Long Is­land in New York, al­so host­ing match­es.

(CMC)