The six CARICOM nations selected as hosts for the upcoming T20 World Cup
Cricket matches will form a single domestic space in order to facilitate ease of
entry for all those involved with the games.
Comptroller of Customs, Raju Boddu, said this was one of the key outcomes of a
two-day meeting of comptrollers of customs and chief immigration officers held in
Antigua and Barbuda this week.
“We held two days of intense discussions on how to really manage the tournament
within the context of a single domestic space. We decided to establish a single
domestic space similar to the 2007 Cricket World Cup, but the question is what
would be the protocols as different countries have different levels of modernization
of immigration processes and protocols?” he stated.
The meeting agreed that there will be ‘specialised treatment’ for those individuals
and organisations that are associated with the cricket tournament. The special
arrangements will be extended to that group of persons described as TOMS -the
acronym for teams, organisers, media and sponsors. The families of team
members have also been included in this arrangement.
With the tournament approximately 80-days away, Boddu said one area of concern
was the issue of online embarkation. This system is already in place in Barbados
while other countries are at different levels in terms of implementing this phase.
Antigua and Barbuda is awaiting funding to implement this system.
The security officials will meet twice in the upcoming month to review the
progress made in having all systems in place ahead of the tournament. “We will
meet virtually in the first week of April and then we will meet in-person in the last
week of April to ‘tighten the nuts and bolts’ of these arrangements. We are ready
to facilitate the tournament here in the Caribbean. Additionally, the importance of
involving all other stake holders, including the administration of airport authorities,
the Veterinary Divisions of the ministries of agriculture as well as health
authorities has been highlighted resulting with invitations now being dispatched to
these entities to participate in our next meetings in order to have a seamless
facilitation process for the tournament,” he explained.
According to Boddu it is critical to have all stakeholders on board to ensure the
success of the undertaking. He added that training programmes are also being
planned for critical workers in security, health, agriculture, immigration and
customs ahead of the tournament.
The single domestic space arrangement means that when TOMS members first
arrive at one host country and clears customs and immigration, they would not be
required to repeat the process whilst they are traveling within the confirms of the
six-country domestic space. If for any reason they have to leave the domestic
space, only then would they be required to repeat the clearing process on re-entry.
The six countries establishing the single domestic space for the tournament are
Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, St. Vincent and the Grenadines
and Trinidad and Tobago.
