West Indies batsman Chris Gayle (left) celebrates his century as South Africa's Makhaya Ntini (right) looks on during last year's Twenty20 World Championship, which was held in South Africa. - AP

Barbados, CMC

Organisers of the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Championship in the Caribbean have nominated Barbados, Guyana and St Lucia to stage matches in the competition.

They have also nominated St Kitts & Nevis to host a proposed women's version of the championship which would be contested simultaneously.

"The four territories were notified on Monday in Castries about their nomination," an official source told the CMC Sports Wire.

Main venue

The plan is to stage the final at Kensington Oval in Bridge-town - the same venue for the final of the 50 overs-a-side World Cup between World champions Australia and Sri Lanka last year.

The other two venues - the Beausejour Stadium, in Gros Islet, and the Guyana National Stadium, in Providence - will share the semi-finals.

Five territories - half the number that pitched for matches in the 2007 World Cup - had made bids to host matches during the World Twenty20. Only Antigua and Barbuda came away empty-handed.

Three venues are required to host the men's event, and the women's event will be staged at Warner Park in Basseterre.

Make recommendations

The organising committee met in Barbados three weeks ago and forwarded their recommendations to the ICC [the sport's World governing body] which will now make the final decision on if they agree with the choices of the organisers.

"It must be stressed that the organising committee is only in a position to make recommendations, and it is up to the ICC to make the final decision about the host venues," the source said.

"The proposed host venues will all now prepare for an inspection by a team from the ICC starting on Monday."

The ICC's inspectors are likely to rubber-stamp the decision of the organising committee to stage the matches in the venues selected.

They visit St Lucia on Monday before travelling to St Kitts and Nevis on Tuesday, Guyana on Wednesday, before ending their trip in Barbados on Thursday.

The territories received broad outlines to the requirements for the matches when they assembled in the St Lucia capital earlier this week.

"Much of the discussion was about ticketing, security, the whole cricket-watching experience in the Caribbean and anti-infringement legislation, all of these things and more was discussed," the source said.

"The World Twenty20 is a far different experience from the World Cup which the Caribbean hosted last year, and from which there were a lot of lessons learnt - some good which will be kept and enhanced; some bad which must not be repeated."

Timeline

West Indies were due to host the ICC Champions Trophy in 2010, but the postponement of the 2008 edition in Pakistan until next year means the same tournament would have been held twice within nine months.

The switch will still mean two of the same global events will be held within a year of each other - England host the second World Twenty20 in June 2009 - but the ICC will regulate the calendar and the Twenty20 will be played every two years in future.