Plans for Kent's important involvement with the 1999 World Cup have been progressing smoothly. Kent host the England team from May 4-13 during the warm-up period in which there will be two practice matches at St.Lawrence - Kent v England on Friday May 7 and Kent v South Africa on Sunday May 9.

Canterbury is then the stage for England v Kenya on Tuesday May 18. The England v Kenya match is now completely sold out though tickets are still available for the other two games. For further details please contact the ticket office on (01227) 456886.

The admission charges for the matches are shown below.

The ground is being arranged to take a capacity of just under 10,000. We will do this by putting temporary seating on all the banks where we normally park cars and on either side of the lime tree. All seats in the ground will be numbered and admission is by pre-sold ticket only.

There will be no parking in the ground except for officials, buses and coaches and those with disabled passes. Parking is in the Simon Langton Girls Grammar School playing fields.

Corporate hospitality entertainment and feeding takes place in a marquee on the grass near to the Old Dover Road and not on the edge of the boundary. There is an overflow marquee for the Harris Room on the bank next to the Leslie Ames Stand boxes. The press box is extended on the upper floor of the Annexe by converting it into a media centre throughout.

The format of the competition is 50 overs each, white ball, coloured clothing, start at 10.45am with the interval between innings. There is a rain day for the England v Kenya match. No alcohol will be allowed into the ground itself. We are, however, happy for those who have the habit of picnicking at St.Lawrence to do so, but within the car park of the Simon Langton Girls Grammar School.

For each of the two warm-up matches we are offering reduced seats (£3) to 2,500 schoolchildren in organised parties from schools or cricket clubs. They have been allocated the front seats in most of the stands. Two children's mascots named Willow and Yorker are soon to be introduced.

The World Cup is being presented as a Carnival of Cricket. The implication of this is that it will be a festive and noisy event to attract the young and uninitiated to cricket. Perhaps this may not be everyone's cup of tea but that is the way the event is being presented.

Other Developments:

Some other events going on during the period are a coaching day with the England team on May 3 at Maidstone and Folkestone coordinated by our development staff. A further coaching day with the England team will be staged at St.Lawrence on May 5 which is preceded by a carnival of cricketing schoolchildren on floats through the city of Canterbury. There is to be a members' reception for the england squad in the Ames-Levett Indoor School in the evening of May 5.

The World Cup has led to some interesting and healthy developments in the administration of non-Test ground counties in that it has already acted as a significant catalyst for progress. Everybody working in the main office now has their own computer which is networked and everybody can receive or send e-mail.

We have our own web-site under development (www.kentcountycricket.co.uk). We have our own computerised ticket system for all our seats similar to the sort that theatregoers will be familiar with.

We are now working much more closely to comply with modern standards of health and safety in our stewarding. We need 120 stewards for each match and have had to form a safety advisory group for the event with delegates from the police, fire service, highways department, health and safety department, ambulance service and a few others to make risk assessments, contingency plans and so on.

There are great opportunities for the club to increase our membership through this event. An adult member who attends all three of the matches saves £37. In addition to this we hope to capitalise on the number of young people coming and increase our junior membership substantially.

There is a good commercial opportunity to make substantial income over these matches so the World Cup 1999, although creating a great deal of work, is a tremendous opportunity for the club, which we are embracing with enthusiasm. If you have any further questions please ask at the Club Office or e-mail Kent CCC direct at kent_cricket@msn.com

Warm up matches:
Kent v England, Friday 7 May

Kent v South Africa, Sunday 9 May

KCCC Members £1, Public £16, Reduced £8
(reduced for under 17 or over 65 on 14 May 1999)

World Cup match
England v Kenya, Tuesday 18 May

KCCC Members £21, Public £28, Reduced £14
(reduced for under 17 on 14 May 1999)

Application forms available from Club Office (01227) 456886
or World Cup Ticket Office (0870) 6061999

Go to CricInfo's 1999 World Cup section for more information

Contributed by William Turrell (william@cricinfo.com)