ICC officials' luggage goes missing, World Cup chief lashes airlines

Grenada, Nov 18 (UNI) Embarrassed after several members of the ICC Venue Tour arrived here without their luggage, Managing Director&CEO of ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 Inc., Chris Dehring, urged the Caribbean airlines to ensure their operations are of world class standard.

The ICC Venue Tour arrived in Grenada yesterday without their luggage. The officials landed in the Spice Isle on Caribbean Star from Trinidad to discover that their baggage was missing.

Mr Dehring was even more agitated as among the items left behind was key equipment used for venue assessment.

However, with help from Government of Grenada Protocol Office, the luggage was sent to Grenada on a flight later in the morning and quickly sent to the Venue Tour party.

Mr Dehring, however, was not ready to overlook the matter and said, ''Here we are, on the third day of the tour, with this most embarrassing example of one of the pivotal concerns which has been repeatedly expressed - and CWC and, more importantly the entire Caribbean, has been let down.

''It's extremely disappointing since it caused the team to lose valuable time in Grenada,'' he added.

''The ICC and its partners are making their final and crucial assessment of whether the Caribbean is capable of and ready to host the Cricket World Cup to world-class standards. This is not what we want them - or for that matter anyone attending Cricket World Cup next year - to remember about the Caribbean,'' he added.

''The airline authorities have been on notice for a long time that this very important tour would be taking place and have been told how much depends on all of us raising our game and showing that the region can deliver in all areas, not just in building fantastic stadia,'' he explained.

The CWC Managing Director felt '' such occurrences exemplify the challenges and why we need everyone in every service to focus individually and collectively on what we have to deliver.

''The Governments and people of the Caribbean have sacrificed a lot for the opportunity to host this tournament and for anyone to operate in a manner that would put this project at risk is reckless.

I have said before - and I say it again now - failure is not an option,'' he added.

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