INSIDE GRENADA December 23, 2007 from Mr. Tony Deyal (WICB's Corporate Secretary) ICC Cricket World Cup WI 2007 (CWC2007), the WICB subsidiary responsible for the successful organization of this year's Cricket World Cup, is no longer in operation. CWC2007 ceased functioning as of today, Friday December 21, 2007, having wrapped up its wide ranging operations across the Caribbean and worldwide. The WICB wishes to express its congratulations and thanks to the Directors, Management and Staff of CWC 2007 for a job well done and for ensuring that the first ever World Cup of Cricket held in the region was both a memorable and profitable enterprise. The Board also wants to thank all the Region's Governments and Local Organising Committees (LOCs) for their efforts and for their diligence in ensuring that the event was a triumph for the region, demonstrating the capacity of the Caribbean to mobilize, organize and implement the most complex of projects. As of today, the balance of the ticket sales due to LOCs were paid out following the conclusion of an extensive verification and review by international auditing firm KPMG. Ticket Sales have now been confirmed at US$31.4M (52 matches) which is the highest ever achieved for any Cricket World Cup, beating the previous record of US$22M (48 matches) in the UK in 1999. The last Cricket World Cup staged in South Africa in 2003 achieved US$9.7M in ticket sales (54 matches). Outgoing Managing Director & CEO, Chris Dehring pointed out that the success of the world cup should not be measured simply in financial terms, but also in the experience gained by the over 9,000 West Indians who were involved. "The Region should ensure that the experience of the World Cup is not only captured but applied to other projects," he said. "As the largest and most complex Pan-Caribbean project ever undertaken, this was a tremendous learning experience and many West Indians developed capacity in areas that will be extremely useful in the future. We must not let that go to waste" With the audit of the ticket sales now complete, the Board of Directors of CWC2007 will hold its final meeting to approve the audited financial statements of the company. These will be announced shortly thereafter. A relieved Dehring, who has been at the helm of the region's efforts to host the event for over 10 years, added, "We must be positive and confident in what we were able to achieve collectively in this region and build on these unparalleled successes. There were so many people who never thought it was even possible. That we did it and surpassed targets achieved by significantly larger and wealthier hosts is an achievement we can be proud of."