C&W Leaving Cricket Footprints

The Digicel/C&W telco wars in West Indies cricket isn't going to go away anytime soon.

The Jamaica Observer's Garfield Myers delivers news that Cable & Wireless has donated artificial, all-weather pitches to the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA). Valued at US$3,600 a pop, 21 pitches in total will be gifted around the Caribbean by the former West Indies team sponsor.

Speaking on Saturday at the presentation of the first pitch, C&W president and CEO Rodney Davis said the company wants to "keep developing the talent so we can make the West Indies cricket team what it used to be."

The JCA deal comes on the heels of word that the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Barbados has signed a memorandum of understanding with C&W to install international-quality floodlights at the 3W's Oval.

Media Watch can't help wondering aloud if Dave Cameron's Kensington Park will get a C&W-funded all-weather wicket.

Changes are afoot for Trinidad & Tobago's national team ahead of the Carib Beer series and under the management of Omar Khan, writes the Guardian?s Vinode Mamchan. Khan and newly elected T&T cricket board president Deryck Murray addressed the squad at the National Cricket Centre on Tuesday.

The manager has analysed training methods used by the team in their KFC Cup failure and will make changes to them, including addressing the mental aspect of the game. Said Khan: "This is an area that has let down the national team too many times in the past and we really need to take a look at this. A successful cricket team has to be mentally strong and this was sadly lacking during the KFC Cup."

Also reported is another development in Trinidad cricket - the expansion of the South East Zone season for 2006. A mid-week competition will be added to the program and all clubs in the zone will participate in a pre-season development seminar.

T&TCB second vice president Azim Bassarath is Chairman of the zone which is the first to implement the seminar idea.

Haydn Gill takes Barbados Nation readers to Grenada, writing that the Spice Isle is determined to meet its commitments as a World Cup 2007 host nation despite the Queens Park Stadium being destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

Rebuilding of the stadium commenced last week, and Local Organising Committee CEO Roy O'Neale says the committee is fully functional and making inroads to the mammoth task of having facilities ready for the big event.

The Guyana Chronicle brings news from Antigua in two separate CMC articles. In the first, Antigua & Barbuda Tourism Minister Harold Lovell is said to have termed the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 anti-infringement policy as too broad and is calling for it to be revised.

While he understands the need for the policy, Lovell said it poses "severe limitations as to (how) you can use the term World Cup and cricket in the same context as your marketing strategy" and claims other countries are equally concerned about the matter.

The second article brings news that Lovell believes Antigua ? expecting 15,000 tourists to arrive for World Cup 2007 ? is suffering from a serious shortage of hotel rooms.

To address the problem, the government recently passed an Act which encourages investors ? both local and foreign ? to expand existing properties or develop new ones.

In the its Sports Arena magazine, the Trinidad Guardian's Everard Gordon questions the huge prize money on offer when the Stanford 20/20 competition gets underway in 2006, asking if any of the teams are worth US$1 million.

Reporting that the West Indies Cricket Board has accepted the tournament he asks of its members: "Has the intelligence of all these men been short-circuited by the electric sum of US dollars? How will this series, in any way, prepare the players in the region for cricket?"

Gordon is of the opinion that Stanford's hefty donation would be of greater value to West Indies cricket if it were re-deployed to something other than what is potentially a one-off 20/20 competition.

Dorian Bryan of the Barbados Advocate reports that Dr Jean Holder, former Caribbean Tourism Organisation Secretary-General will represent the CTO on the Cricket World Cup 2007 board of directors.

The mandate handed to Holder is to ensure the region ?maximises the economic returns from the Cricket World Cup and that the economic benefits from Cricket World Cup should filter through to all levels of entrepreneurship throughout the nine hosting countries and the rest of the Caribbean?.

Writing from Melbourne, Tony Cozier apologises for Bennett King saying that whilst the Head Coach has greater authority than any of his predecessors, he has no control over the contract dispute; cannot take catches, bowl decent line and length or bat like a Test batsman; and cannot prevent biased umpiring.

Therefore, Cozier concludes that it is impossible to assess the impact the Aussie and his posse have made and says King?s greatest challenge ahead of the second Test in Hobart is to lift morale by assuring the team that the Gabba result was "an aberration."