We did not take a penny from World Cup ticket revenue: ICC

St George's, Grenada, Apr 20 (UNI) The International Cricket Council today asserted that it did not take a single penny from the gates revenue of the ongoing World Cup and that all the money had gone to the coffers of local organising committees (LOCs).

''There is no truth that it was ICC which forced the LOCs to hike the price of the tickets, it was local associations who benefited from the gate revenue,'' ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed told Indian journalists here today.

He refuted the allegations that ICC has been interfering into the affairs of the LOCs saying, ''We gave the local committees full freedom to conduct the matches.'' Speed rejected the allegations that ICC virtually killed the Caribbean flavour by banning the music inside the stadia saying, ''We allowed people to bring their musical instruments for the matches but they have to register that before hand. As far as I know no one was refused permission to do that. Again I had been to eight venues and there was plenty of noise.'' ''During the India-Sri Lanka game in Port of Spain there was no noise. I was there you know why there no noise because the Indian team was playing badly.'' Speed also did not agree with the view that the World Cup was too long.

''The problem is that whichever country loses early, like India or Pakistan, their supporters start saying that it is very long, but let me tell you that this edition is not longer than the previous one held in South Africa.

''I think there has been criticism for the length of the tournament. The team that get through to the final will play 11 matches in 47 days so one match every four-and-a-quarter days. See, India is going to England later this year and will play 22 days of cricket in 57 days. So they will play every three days of one-day cricket. That is twice as many days of cricket as compared to the World cup. And they are going to be there 10 days longer.'' Then he asked, ''Why shouldn't the World Cup be a long event? Why is there this urge that the World Cup should be as short as possible. It's good for cricket that the World Cup goes on for a long period of time and sustains interest all around the World.

''I am disappointed that it is seen as a negative in the countries that have been eliminated. You need to be careful about that. Your country loses interest, so you say this is going on and on and on.

''In South Africa, there were 14 teams including four associate nations. We had two groups of seven so the associate teams each played six matches no matter what happens. So, Namibia and Holland played six matches.

''Here the associates were guaranteed of three matches. Then we moved to the super eights so while we had more associate countries here the minimum guaranteed number of games was significantly less.

The fact that Ireland moved on and Pakistan didn't is a consequence of that. So this format in its planning assumed that the associate countries will be play fewer matches than in south afirca and in England in 1999.'' The ICC CEO also contended that the World Cup in the West Indies has been a major success.

''What we have seen is that the governments of various countries in the Caribbean have built 12 five star cricket grounds that are the equal of the cricket ground anywhere in the world,'' Mr Speed said.

He admitted that it was extremely difficult to hold a World Cup across nine countries and and thanked the governments for their cooperation.

''We knew before the event started that there would be matches where you wouldn't have full houses where the less popular teams were playing.. I am disappointed that there have been criticisms, because I think generally the number of tickets that have been sold and the attendance in the big matches have been excellent,'' he contended.

UNI