Former Windies greats promoting WC tourism

By Sanath Weerasuriya in London

The cricketing legends of West Indian Cricket, Sir Garfield Sobers, Vivian Richards and Joel Garner were among the distinguish guests at the Barbados, Jamaican and Trinidad and Tobago Pavillions at the World Travel Market (WTM) here in London.

They were here to promote their respective country stands on travel and tourism.

World Cup Cricket is the biggest attraction of the most of the Caribbean Countries and they promote the event at full scale at the WTM.

St. Lucia, which is one of the eight Caribbean countries scheduled to host matches in the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2007, will be the venue of the first ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 summit.

Sri Lanka, who is in Group B , will play their first World Cup Match with Bermuda on March 15 in Trinidad and Tobago. The first warm-up match will be in Barbados on March 5 with Scotland.

The other venues for World Cup 2007 are Barbados (Kensington Oval), Guyana (new venue), St. Kitts (Warner Park), Grenada (Queen's Park), Jamaica (Sabina Park), Antigua (new venue) and Trinidad and Tobago (Queen's Park Oval).

The matches in St. Lucia will take place at the Beausejour Stadium, which has been the venue for the Cable and Wireless 2004 series. Substantial upgrades will take place at the stadium before the start of the matches. St. Lucia was awarded the Blue match package, which means that the island will be hosting one semi final and six first round matches (England Team).