Twenty20 dry run for World Cup soccer: ICC chief

The inaugural Twenty20 World Championship, to be hosted by South Africa, will be seen as the African nation’s acid test ahead of a much bigger challenge — the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

The inaugural Twenty20 World Championship, to be hosted by South Africa, will be seen as the African nation’s acid test ahead of a much bigger challenge — the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

Despite the obvious cricket focus at the launch ceremony here, the organisers didn’t hide the fact that the larger focus is on passing what they are calling the ‘dry run’ for the soccer World Cup.

International Cricket Council (ICC) president Ray Mali, in a candid chat with The Indian Express following the Twenty20 launch programme, explained how important it is for both Cricket South Africa and the ICC to host the Twenty20 world championship successfully in more ways than one.

“This tournament is going to be treated as a dry run for the football World Cup, which will happen here in three years,” Mali told this daily, adding, “that’s why, as far as organising it is concerned, we are very closely working with logistics people from Fifa. It’s like two teams from two separate spheres working together, knitting well.”

Asked to elaborate about what aspects the Fifa is particularly zeroing in on, when it comes to monitoring how well this September’s Twenty20 World Cup, the ICC chief pointed out that the first and foremost thing is security.

“Security, of course, is one of the main issues on which the football World Cup front are focusing on. We have to show the world that on the security front, we can host the Twenty20 World Cup smoothly. That’s one thing they will keep their eye on, keeping in mind the big football World Cup,” said Mali, who hails from South Africa himself.

“There are three fronts on which the people from the Fifa team are working with us in organising the Twenty20 world cup,” said ICC supreme Mali, stating: “Security, logistics, and the volunteers programme.”

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Mali explained that with a huge number of Fifa “organisers” getting involved with the hosting and run-up to the Twenty20 event, the world football body is actually looking to get a feel on the logistics front.

“Basically, it’s the logistics of hosting a big tournament here that the Fifa wants to get used to. We have hosted the 2003 cricket world cup here, we have hosted a number of other important tournaments. So, I think keeping the Fifa World Cup in mind, the Twenty20 world cup will be quite successful,” he said.