By Qaiser Mohammad Ali,

New Delhi, Sep 20 (IANS) The Indian cricket board will be the lone body to skip a meeting of managers of the 16 participating teams of the 2007 World Cup, called by the organisers in Barbados Thursday and Friday.

Niranjan Shah, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said that the Indian team's manager would be appointed only after the board's annual general meeting (AGM) in Mumbai Sep 27-28.

"No one from the BCCI is attending the meeting because there is a lot of time left for the World Cup," Shah told IANS.

The World Cup will be played in the West Indies between March 11 and Apr 28.

"We will appoint the manager only after the AGM. Let them organise meetings. We are not going to lose out on anything by not attending it," he said.

Representatives of the 16 participating nations will attend the meeting, hosted by the cricket operations department of the World Cup West Indies 2007 Inc.

Senior officials from the International Cricket Council (ICC) and World Cup headquarters as well as cricket operations managers from the nine local organising committees of the host islands will also be attending.

Shah said that it was "practical" to send the Indian representative closer to the World Cup rather than now.

"We (BCCI) are not a professional outfit, but we are more practical," he quipped.

A former Saurashtra player, he said that the BCCI would send the manager separately once he an appointment is made.

"We will send our manager separately to the West Indies in January, two months before the tournament. They (organisers) will tell him the same thing that they would do now," he said.

Shah also said that so far as accommodation in the Caribbean is concerned, the BCCI has already informed the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) about the problems the team faced on its West Indies tour this May-June.

"We have already informed the WICB about the problems faced by the team at Hilton hotel in Trinidad & Tobago where the squad would stay for its World Cup preliminary league matches," he disclosed.

"I have sent a letter outlining these problems, based on the feedback from coach Greg Chappell and other members of the team that stayed there."

Shah said the security arrangement at the hotel was one of the problems faced by the team.

At the meeting this week, team officials will be updated on several aspects of the World Cup organisation, including the confirmation of international flights, special CARICOM visa, airport arrival and departure protocols for teams, domestic flight arrangements, confirmation of hotel arrangements, ground transportation plans, team practice schedules, support staff arrangements, and administrative issues like match tickets and financial arrangements, said World Cup organisers.

Many team representatives are combining their attendance at the meeting with visits to the host venues where their respective teams will play group stage matches.

Besides a host of officials from the organising committee, ICC general manager David Richardson and ICC host liaison officer Chris Tetley will inform the managers on various team obligations.

Teams are scheduled to arrive in the Caribbean March 2.