D&G Arm-Twisting Robs Antigua of Red Stripe Zone

There will be no Red Stripe Bowl cricket in Antigua this year, thanks to high-stakes arm-twisting by beverage manufacturer Desnoes & Geddes, the company that sponsors the regional one-day tournament.

According to insiders, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) had already confirmed a schedule to host the two zones of early-round matches in Antigua and St Lucia but was told at the last minute by D&G that one zone of the Red Stripe Bowl must be held in Jamaica. The tournament starts on August 14.

understands the WICB was then forced to shift the Antigua zone to Jamaica amid arm-twisting threats from the D&G executives, who lobbied heavily for the games to be played in its biggest market. The Jamaica leg of the Bowl will now feature Barbados, Leeward Islands, St Vincent and the Grenadines, a team from UWI and the host country.

"It really is sickening. I understand the need to give the sponsors value for their dollar but this shows a lack of backbone at the WICB level. They are denying the rest of the Caribbean a chance to host domestic matches," one irate Antiguan official said.

Sources say a controversial (and challenged) clause in the contract between the WICB and D&G requires that one of the two zones in the preliminary round of the tournament be staged in Jamaica but the WICB believed it could get away with shifting one zone this year to another country.

"Well, Red Stripe (D&G) called their bluff and told them in no uncertain manner that it's either staged in Jamaica, or not staged at all," one official said, on condition of anonymity.

The last-minute decision to capitulate to D&G's demands means Jamaica will now host the Red Stripe Bowl and the West Indies Under-19 tournament which runs from August 1-24. Sources say the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) is now burdened with the task of making travel arrangements, finding accommodation, grounds and officials to run both tournaments.

To put it in perspective, the Red Stripe zone will include five teams and the two Under-19 tournaments (one-dayers and three-dayers) will include nine teams.