Antigua to become permanent home of West Indies cricket
Antigua will be the permanent home of cricket in the Caribbean. That’s the word from West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Whycliffe Cameron.
He made the announcement on Thursday night at the Jamaica Trade and Invest headquarters on Trafalgar Road.
Cameron said that the West Indies cricket ‘Dave’ teams at all levels will meet in Antigua for training ahead of competitions and said this makes sense since the body is already headquartered on the island.
WICB marketing and communications manager Carole Beckford said the agreement was made possible because of the relationship between the board and the Antiguan government.
“All of the developmental infrastructure, the high-performance centre, the centre of training – all of that will be in Antigua. It was brought about by the arrangement we have with Antigua, that we have a partnership with the former Stanford Cricket Ground – also known as ‘Sticky Wicket’.
REMODELLING
The government of Antigua and the West Indies Cricket Board have a memorandum of understanding and a relationship to occupy that property,” Beckford said.
Remodelling of the cricket field is currently under way, and other facilities, such as the restaurant and the athletic club, will be built up over the next three years.
Meanwhile, Cameron said that this will follow the work the board has done to increase its number of full-time staff to 300, adding that this means that Jamaica has a lot more to do in order to not fall behind Antigua and the rest of the region with regard to cricket.
“The rest of the region has engaged cricket much more than Jamaica,” said Cameron.
Cameron said the reason Jamaica has not been granted many Test matches by the WICB recently is because Sabina Park, which he describes as the “major cricket stadium” is in Kingston.
“Some of us don’t see the city as a tourist destination, whereas in the other islands, they are not that big, so all the stadiums are on the sea, basically. When we go to the governments in the region, they’re all begging West Indies cricket, except Jamaica and that is a reality.”
Cameron says the WICB facilitates negotiations with whichever government contacts it as it is running a business.