CASTRIES, St. Lucia – The executive leading St. Lucia’s hosting of both the first round and a semifinal of next year’s ICC Cricket World Cup wants the Caribbean Diaspora to be part of the region’s team for this historic event.
Ernest Hilaire, Chief Executive Officer of Cricket World Cup St. Lucia Inc. will be in New York this week to reach out to the cricketing community, St. Lucians, West Indians and official travel agents in North America. “We want West Indians in the tri-state area and St. Lucians in particular to come home for Cricket World Cup. We are all part of the making of history in the West Indies,” said Hilaire, who would like Caribbean-Americans to plan their 2007 St. Lucia vacation around the World Cup schedule, to lend their support and to show the world what St. Lucia and the Caribbean can offer.
Ernest Hilaire
St. Lucia has earned the “Blue Package” which includes six first round matches between Canada, England, Kenya, and New Zealand in Group C in March 2007, and the semifinal between the number 1 and 4 teams in April. Jamaica will host the other semifinal and Barbados handles the final.
“It will be a tremendous occasion, not just in St. Lucia, but in the entire Caribbean,” said Hilaire, who believes the Caribbean defied the odds by successfully bidding to host the world’s third largest sporting event, to be held in nine Caribbean countries. “Our size, our economic resources, our national infrastructure, different currencies – everything about hosting a world games suggests it should not be done in the Caribbean … except our human resources since no other region in the world enjoys and celebrates cricket like West Indians,” said Hilaire, who underscored that cricket is a way of life in the West Indies.
He said that the Caribbean may not have the world’s biggest stadia or the most modern transportation system, “but we will have a people who know how to enjoy life … and a people who can host you and extend hospitality to you that you will get nowhere else in the world.”
The cricket executive, once a personal attaché to St. Lucia’s Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony, said Cricket World Cup is a tremendous opportunity for the region, and contingency plans are in place to accommodate visitors for the competition, including existing and new hotels and resorts, cruise ships, tented structures, camp sites and home accommodations.
Hilaire leads the Cricket World Cup St. Lucia delegation to New York, Washington DC and Toronto, while Minister of Tourism, the Honourable Philip J. Pierre leads the official St. Lucian team for Caribbean Week in New York meetings and events.
ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 will be held in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago. St. Vincent and the Grenadines will host a number of the warm-up matches.
