The inaugural ICC World Twenty20 tournament gets under way in South Africa on 11 September. The event comes just over six months after a World Cup in the West Indies which was widely criticised for its poor organisation. Former Proteas Test bowler Steve Elworthy was put in charge of organising the Twenty20 tournament. With under two weeks to go, Elworthy gives BBC Sport his thoughts ahead of the tournament. DO YOU FEEL ADDED PRESSURE AFTER THE WORLD CUP? Hosting a world event is always going to be a big challenge and you want it to be a success, so it is added pressure. You are certainly cognizant of the fact that the World Cup did get a bit of bad press in terms of attendances and what have you.
It's a short tournament so they have addressed that issue from the World Cup. The ticket sales issue has always been at the back of my mind and I get a daily update. The awareness is very high, ticket sales are going extremely well and we are very happy with where we are now. However, we have to be realistic. You look at the Wanderers Stadium and it holds more than 30,000 and there are nine matches there in 13 days. So it will be very difficult to fill that every game - especially when two of the games start in the morning. We are realistic but we need to ensure it is successful - it is the inaugural tournament and the first event in the new eight-year cycle of the ICC. That's very important for us and also from their perspective.
HOW ARE TICKET SALES GOING? There has been a lot of home support in terms of snapping up the tickets. Some of the high-profile games are sold out - the opening game, the final and both the semi-finals. One or two of the double-headers are close to being sold-out. We know where the poorer attended games are and now we can do something about it. Whether it is from a school perspective or club cricket sides, we can drive attendances through there and through competitions. Some of the games are in the morning and we have to work closely with the board of education and the schools themselves. We would like to do some competitions - we don't want to give the tickets away but we want to make some sort of incentive to win those tickets.
IS THERE ROOM FOR ANOTHER INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT? The way the tournament is positioned and the way the format is set-up I think it has its place in the cricketing calendar. It adds to cricketers' repertoire - if they want to cut across the three forms of the game (Test, one-day and Twenty20) they need to have a game that is suitable to all three formats.
HOW ARE TICKET SALES GOING? There has been a lot of home support in terms of snapping up the tickets. Some of the high-profile games are sold out - the opening game, the final and both the semi-finals. One or two of the double-headers are close to being sold-out. We know where the poorer attended games are and now we can do something about it. Whether it is from a school perspective or club cricket sides, we can drive attendances through there and through competitions. Some of the games are in the morning and we have to work closely with the board of education and the schools themselves. We would like to do some competitions - we don't want to give the tickets away but we want to make some sort of incentive to win those tickets.
IS THERE ROOM FOR ANOTHER INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT? The way the tournament is positioned and the way the format is set-up I think it has its place in the cricketing calendar. It adds to cricketers' repertoire - if they want to cut across the three forms of the game (Test, one-day and Twenty20) they need to have a game that is suitable to all three formats.
Some players can crossover to all three but in other instances it will give other players a chance to play at international level - it might give some the chance to step up to 50-over cricket and maybe even Test cricket. There are opportunities for young people or other players to adapt to another format. So long as the World Cup, the ICC Champions Trophy and this tournament are positioned correctly they all have a place. If the boundaries are clearly defined around each product and they don't mix into each other I think there is room for all three.
WHAT ARE YOUR HOPES AND FEARS AHEAD OF THE EVENT? My biggest hope is simply that the tournament is a success, everything runs correctly and is really well supported. It is winter so we haven't played much cricket in September so it will be interesting to see how the wickets react from a weather perspective. My biggest fear would be the weather concern. It is such a short tournament and there is not much room for manoeuvrability in terms of reserve games or teams having to fly off to play their next game. So rain-affected matches could cause a bit of a problem across all three stadiums. I don't have too many fears because that would mean we are not prepared very well - and I'm pretty confident we have prepared well.
WHAT ARE YOUR HOPES AND FEARS AHEAD OF THE EVENT? My biggest hope is simply that the tournament is a success, everything runs correctly and is really well supported. It is winter so we haven't played much cricket in September so it will be interesting to see how the wickets react from a weather perspective. My biggest fear would be the weather concern. It is such a short tournament and there is not much room for manoeuvrability in terms of reserve games or teams having to fly off to play their next game. So rain-affected matches could cause a bit of a problem across all three stadiums. I don't have too many fears because that would mean we are not prepared very well - and I'm pretty confident we have prepared well.
Source: BBC Sport
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