Preparations smooth

The local organising committee (LOC) of the 2011 World Cup is confident that everything will fall into place before the deadline.
Bangladesh is going to host a big tournament like the World Cup for the first time as one of co-hosts along with India and Sri Lanka, and they have been given eight matches including two quarterfinals beside the opening ceremony.
The venues including the Bangabandhu National Stadium, where the grand opening ceremony will take place on February 17 next year, are now under constructions by the supervision of National Sports Council (NSC).
"We are happy with the progress and we are hopeful that we can hand over the venues to the ICC (International Cricket Council) on time," said Ali Ahsan Babu, host tournament director, adding that they have to complete everything within November this year.
"We are getting tremendous support from all quarters. Everything is running smoothly. The ICC team will start their inspection from November 15 and Bangladesh will be their last destination. We had organised a knockout tournament involving all the major cricketing nations (1998 Mini World Cup) but we have never hosted tournament of this magnitude, so many things are new to us," he added.
"ICC delegates already expressed their satisfaction over the preparations of the pitches and grounds," said Babu.
Bangladesh government has allocated Tk 256 crore for the infrastructural development of the venues.
A total of six matches including two quarterfinals and the opening match between Bangladesh and India will be held at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium while the remaining two games will take place at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in the port city. The Fatullah Cricket Stadium and Khulna Stadium have been chosen as alternative venues.
"We are in touch with the NSC officials regarding the progress and we are monitoring everything. As per our observation everything is in the right place. LOC officials recently visited the Chittagong venue and met with the new mayor (Manzur Alam)," informed Babu.
"We have already decided about the hotels. There was supposed to be a new hotel in the port city but finally we had to decide on Hotel Peninsula where five teams can reside at a time," he added.
Ali Ahsan informed that for the opening ceremony, ten foreign companies will put on their presentations on August 30 and 31 and the respective committee will finalise one to assign for the grand show.
"There is a big plan with the opening ceremony. You know, ICC allocated 1.5 million dollars for the opening ceremony while Bangladesh government also allocated the same amount of money," he said.
Security is another major issue for the tournament and Babu said that the concerned authorities have been carrying out random meeting to make sure of the highest security during the World Cup.
"The concerned authority has been carrying out meetings regularly. We already sent the security plan to the ICC. Now we have to send specific security plan for the respective venues," informed Babu.