``During our three-day stay we have inspected the venue, its flood lights, the practice venues and also finalised various issues with the government and the board for the upcoming mega event and we are now all set for the tournament,'' said David Richards,Chief executive of the ICC who arrived in the city on Monday.
Richards also disclosed that two different agreements were signed with the board and the government during their stay.
``We have signed a contract with the BCB on Tuesday regarding our sharing of the responsibilities as organiser and hosts. Besides another agreement was signed with the government this morning on the security, traffic, power supply,insurance and customs aspects.These are very basic agreements required for official formalities,'' he added.
It might be added that Sadharan Bima Corporation have decided to extend insurance coverage of the tournament.
State Minister for Youth and Sports Obaidul Quader and BCB president Saber Hossain Chowdhury signed the agreement on behalf of the government and the board respectively.
About the newly installed flood lights and dressing rooms at the Dhaka Stadium, David said,'' The lights are terrific. I have not seen better lights anywhere in the world. According to international standards, a day-night match can easily be played under lights with the capacity of 1800 to 2000 lax, but I found the lights here are of 2400 lax which has exceeded our expectation. We need some minor adjustments in the dressing rooms at the practice venues which we hope to get better before the tournament starts.''
Replying to another question, David said that there was never any possibility of the tournament being shifted from Dhaka.
``We never thought of such a change,'' he said
He also informed the press that ICC is almost set to sign a contract with ``Kodak'' to be the official film sponsor of the knock-out tournament which involves all the nine Test playing nations. If they reach to an agreement with Kodak, the press photographers will be provided with free films during the tournament.
David also revealed that three former international cricketers Nasimul Ghani of Pakistan, Bobby Simpson of Australia and Zimbabwean Andy Pycroft - have been given the responsibility of assessing the feasibility of awarding Bangladesh the Test status. The three will visit Bangladesh after the Wills International Cup.
David, who left the city last night, also confirmed that ``bowl-out'', a term similar to tie-breaker in football, will be introduced in the Wills International Cup to get a result from an abandoned match. Five bowlers from each team will bowl two deliveries each and the team hitting the stumps most will be declared winners. If the score remains tied from the first ten deliveries, the result will be decided through sudden death methods.
Bangladesh Cricket Board President Saber Hossain Chowdhury, vice-president Tanveer Mazhar Tanna and ICC executive Campbell Jamieson were also present at the press conference.
Asif Iqbal, the event manager of the Wills International Cup who also arrived in the city along with David, was not present as he left the capital for Sharjah last morning.
Asif will be back in Dhaka on October 8 and will stay here until the tournament ends.
Answering to a question, Saber, the local cricket boss, said that they have abandoned the idea of holding two international matches between Bangladesh and two other participating teams.
However, Saber said that there was a possibility of the BCB hosting a couple of exhibition matches at the BKSP ground between local selects and New Zealand and Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe will be the first team to arrive on October 17 followed by New Zealand who will arrive the day after.