St. David's cricket ground - Lord's - will truly merit its name if Bermuda's Cricket World Cup bid is successful.

The Island's easternmost venue has been cited in the Island's bid as the location for warm-up matches if Bermuda is chosen for first-round fixtures in the 2007 cricketing showpiece being hosted by the West Indies for the first time.

Such an event would necessitate a facelift at St. David's that would certainly make it the envy of other clubs and, in Bermuda, it would be second only in stature to cricket facilities at the National Sports Centre where actual World Cup games would be held.

“The World Cup will have four groups in the first round and if a country decides it wants to bid to host a first-round group - which would mean six (round-robin) matches - it also has to be prepared to host a warm-up series with the same teams,” explained Bermuda Cricket Board (BCB) official Neil Speight.

“So the four teams in that group would come to the host country maybe two weeks before the tournament starts and play a series of four to six matches. It hasn't been decided yet how many warm-up games there will be.

“You cannot host warm-up games at the same venue where you play the first round. So there needed to be a second ground.

“There is one bid going down for first-round matches and in that we have put that we would host warm-up games at St. David's field.”

Speight and Brian Hanlon, the vice-president of Brailsford & Dunlavey - the American consultancy firm spearheading Bermuda's World Cup aspirations - fly to Barbados today to formally present the Island's bid to World Cup officials. The deadline for bid submissions is Thursday May 6 at 8.30 p.m. Bermuda time.

St. David's received the thumbs-up after a detailed review by the consultants which was “just a pure cricketing-stadia decision”.

“It was also about infrastructure, communications, transport, security - all those other reasons. A major factor was the size. St. David's comes very close to meeting the ICC regulations for World Cup play.

“I think they (the consultants) also felt it had proven itself in the past with some major visiting teams having played there successfully,” said Speight.

He noted that hosting warm-up World Cup matches required significantly more infrastructure for a stadium and field than any other cricket game ever held here. Therefore a facelift of extreme proportions would have to take place at Lord's, a benefit that would remain for ages to come.

“One of the reasons the Board was keen to pursue this whole World Cup bid was not just about bringing cricket to Bermuda but also (because of) the chance to leave a legacy.

“It's an opportunity to develop the NSC and St. David's to almost-international-class level,” said Speight.

There are other advantages, he added, such as the possibility that if moveable seating was brought in it could be used at various grounds afterwards.

Meanwhile, Sports Minister Dale Butler has expressed supreme confidence in Bermuda's bid, hailing it as an expertly-compiled package which answers all “24 Deliveries” (areas for each potential host to address) from the World Cup organising committee.

“A formal presentation was made to Cabinet and we were extremely impressed with the quality of that presentation which includes a DVD. It will be presented in a silver case which has Bermuda on the outside in gold lettering.

“They (consultants) have done extensive work with all the Government departments and they received an overwhelming response. Our booklet clearly outlines the 24 deliverables in great detail.

“The Dunleavy and Bralisford firm is one of the world's leading sports promotion firms and we were extremely delighted with quality of consultations and leadership that they provided in preparing Bermuda's bid.

“It's truly a first-class presentation. Even if we don't get a bid it's been a very meaningful learning process to understand what standards are required. Clearly Test matches have a high standard but the World Cup has an even higher standard and we believe Bermuda can achieve that.

“This is the first time Bermuda has had to measure up in this way. It's bigger than hosting Carifta. Everything has to be answered. Some things with Carifta are left to the host country. They give you guidelines and you put the meat on it but this thing is huge.

“This is a golden opportunity for the country. It's a tremendous amount of work that would have to be done and we have already been able to do most of it on paper . . . and obviously we will be working very hard once we are chosen on July 4 (the day successful bids are announced),” said an enthusiastic Butler.

Questioned about his high level of confidence that Bermuda would be picked, the minister replied it was based on the evidence before him.

“Anyone who saw the presentation that we put together - highlighting all the international sports events we do here and the numerous amenities we have here - would be extremely impressed.

“It's going to be left up to the Venue Assessment Team (VAT). They have made Bermuda their last stop (in June) and I think Bermuda will be the inspiration on their whole tour.”

Revealing that the Island's bid was budgeted at $300 000, Butler noted the “most challenging” elements of bringing World Cup action to Bermuda would be accommodating the influx of visitors.

“That's going to be very, very challenging. In our bid we had to give a current assessment of our bed count and what it would be after Sonesta and a couple of other places like Club Med come on stream.

“We also indicated the possibility of bringing in one or two cruise ships,” said the minister.