St. David’s and Somerset Cricket Clubs will join the National Sports Centre in hosting Pepsi World Cricket League Division Three Tournament matches next spring.The venues were confirmed yesterday at a press conference hosted by Youth, Families and Sports Minister Glenn Blakeney. Also attending were Bermuda Cricket Board vice-president Nyon Steede and CEO Neil Speight, along with ICC’s Development Events Manager Edward Fitzgibbon who has been in Bermuda this week inspecting local grounds ahead of the final decision.The Sports Centre, which is hosting the World Rugby Classic starting this weekend, was always going to be one of the venues for the six-team tournament from April 28 to May 5. Bailey’s Bay has been designated as the standby venue for the tournament and has been approved along with St. John’s Field and Wellington Oval to host practice matches.“The awarding of international games to these three fields is conditional on some minor upgrades and criteria that each host will have to to fulfill before final sign-off,” said Minister Blakeney of the three venues for the tournament.Bermuda will be joined in the tournament by Uganda, Italy, Oman, USA and Nepal, representing four of the five ICC regions. The top two countries after the five round-robin matches will advance to the World Cup qualifiers in New Zealand in February, 2014. They will also meet in the play-off final for top spot while other matches will also be played for Division Three rankings.Fitzgibbon said the trip had been productive for him as he visited several grounds and also met with the Umpires Association. It is expected some local umpires will be used, both on field and as third officials.“I would like to acknowledge the hospitality of the people in Bermuda, the hotel and the cricket clubs for how they have treated me this week,” said Fitzgibbon. “It was certainly a very difficult decision to narrow it down to only three clubs, but I’d like to say that Bermuda is very fortunate to have so many fantastic cricketing facilities. A lot of the countries that I go to and run similar tournaments at only have three grounds so we have to go with those three, but here we have six or seven that could have been chosen.“The National Sports Centre, St. David’s and Somerset got the call this time, they impressed me very, very much. The National Sports Centre is a fantastic facility that has hosted a number of international games and I was very impressed with that facility.“St. David’s is a large ground with very good facilities, changing rooms and dining areas and I heard the wicket plays very, very well. At Somerset is the iconic pink stand (clubhouse) which immediately stuck out to me and the ground, wicket and outfield is very nice. Bailey’s Bay was unfortunate and could have got it, but they will be on standby and will be hosting pre-tournament matches.”It is anticipated the BCB and Bermuda Football Association will work closely to ensure that the two club grounds cease hosting football matches at least a month before the tournament. The football schedule has final matches being played at both grounds on March 24 but the grounds could close even earlier in order to get the wickets prepared. Each ground will host a Bermuda game at least once.Government also sees the tournament as an opportunity to promote sports tourism as the countries are expected to bring supporters with them.“When government supported the BCB in the bidding process for this competition it recognised the opportunity to provide a boost to tourism in the shoulder season in 2013,” said Blakeney.“It is expected that a minimum of 150 people will be coming to our beautiful shores to compete or participate in this event. A significant number of supporters are also expected to come and rally behind their teams.”Fairmont Southampton will serve as the official tournament hotel and will house the teams and officials.