The stands are up, the artificial pitch is laid and with 48 hours to go before the inaugural 20-20 World Cricket Classic, organiser Keith Pont is promising the Bermudian public a magnificent cricketing spectacle at the National Sports Centre.

With the vast majority of the game?s former greats from seven different countries expected to arrive tomorrow night, Pont and his small army of staff members and volunteers have spent the past week tearing about the Island putting the finishing touches to a project which has been 18 months in the making.

And though clearly under pressure yesterday, Pont insisted that bar a few minor logistical hiccups, everything was going to plan ? though he admitted to keeping his fingers crossed that the cool, showery weather which has affected the Island all week will be replaced by sunshine by the time the first ball is bowled on Sunday afternoon.

?I?m very happy with the way everything has gone so far ? though I?d like to have a little more sleep and maybe a lie-in,? joked the charismatic former Essex allrounder and present chief executive of the Get Fit Foundation, the charity behind the tournament.

?It?s been a long process putting an event of this size on but everything is now beginning to fall into place. The ground looks absolutely amazing and I was just having a word with Gus Logie who said he had never seen the ground looking so good.

?When people come through the gates on Sunday and they see how the ground has been set up, I think they will start to appreciate the enormous potential that this site has.

?The artificial wicket was laid earlier this week and we?ve have spent the last few hours testing the bounce and the pace with which the ball comes on. I will be getting Gus and a few of the national team boys down this afternoon to try it out and if there are any adjustments that need to be made then that should not be a problem.

?One of the luxuries of having a state-of-the-art artificial wicket at our disposal is that we can tailor it to our needs so if something is not quite right we can stretch it a little bit and make sure it plays in the way we want it to play.

?In terms of the weather, we?re told that all this rain should start to clear away by the weekend which we?re extremely thankful for. There?s obviously nothing we can do if it rains but I will be keeping a very close eye on it and it will be up to me to make a decision on the day as to how we proceed if we are affected by the weather.

?We do have a couple of spare days available if we have to call off play at any stage, but I?d be reluctant to do that because of the huge number of volunteers we?ve got helping us out who have taken time off work to be here.

?All that aside, I am really confident the event is going to be a success. The stadium looks like a real international arena and with the calibre of players we?ve got coming, I know Bermuda is going to enjoy and be very proud of this tournament.?