NEW YORK – Dr. Ernest Hilaire, Chief Executive Officer of Cricket World Cup, St. Lucia Inc., leading the island’s hosting of both the first round and a semifinal of this year’s ICC Cricket World Cup, promises the Caribbean will deliver the best World Cup ever.
Speaking to Caribbean-Americans at “The Mangoville Bar and Grill” in Queens over the weekend, Dr. Hilaire reminisced that a few years ago when the West Indies won the right to host the world’s biggest cricket spectacle, many skeptics believed small island nations would never be able to do it. “But we told them … and we are going to deliver to the world the best Cricket World Cup.”
The cricket administrator said that throughout the years the West Indies had introduced a more exciting way of both playing and enjoying cricket. “And in 2007, we will show the world a different way of hosting a Cricket World Cup,” adding that St. Lucia is proud to be part of the regional endeavour.
Dr. Ernest Hilaire
Chief Executive Officer of Cricket World Cup, St. Lucia Inc.,
addressing the audience
But cricket is not just about play on the field, said Hilaire. “It’s a celebration of life, it’s the way we as West Indians love living. It’s not about sitting down in a stadium and clapping for every four and every wicket. It’s about liming the night before, fêting just before the match, celebrating during the match, and of course liming and fêting after the match. There will not be a boring moment in the West Indies. It will be 47 nights of festivals and excitement.”
Hilaire, who holds a PhD in international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science, invited members of the Diaspora to be part of the action in St. Lucia and the Caribbean. “This is an event that no West Indian should miss, it’s an event that no cricket supporter should miss, and certainly not an event any West Indian supporter should miss at all,” he said, adding that on display will be some of the finest quality cricket venues in the world.
St. Lucia’s Director of Tourism, Maria Fowell, told the audience that St. Lucia had a wide variety of accommodations to offer cricket fans. “You choose your pick … from luxury villas to small inns, all-inclusives to EP (European Plan) hotels, on the beach, in a mountain, up the hill, down the hill, whatever you desire, I am sure that we can offer you something,” and she added that activities on the island are plentiful.
Chaitram Persaud, sales manager of TravelSpan Vacations, one of the official cricket travel agents and co-hosts of Saturday’s event, said his company always associates itself with beauty, encouraging attendees to select TravelSpan for their travel arrangements to St. Lucia, “so that you can be there to see a West Indian victory.”
St. Lucia has earned CWC 2007’s “Blue Package” which includes six first round or group stage matches between Canada, England, Kenya, and New Zealand in Group C in March 2007, and the semifinal between the number one (1) and four (4) teams in April. Jamaica will host the other semifinal and Barbados handles the final.
Tickets were still available for the first round matches, while the semifinal, which will attract 20,000 spectators, had already been “sold out” in the public ticketing phase, with tickets only available through the purchase of packages from official tour operators (www.cricketlogistics.com) and from the Corporate Hospitality program ([email protected]).
Besides St. Lucia, the ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 will be held in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago. St. Vincent and the Grenadines will host a number of the warm-up matches.
