West Indies: WICB bow to beer pressure (26 Sep 1997)

Friday, September 26, 1997

WICB bow to beer pressure

By SHAMMI KOWLESSAR

THE Red Stripe Bowl sponsorship is the largest in the history of regional cricket tournaments.

This was revealed at Queen's Park Oval yesterday during a media conference to discuss the format for next month's inaugural limited-overs tournament as well as the overall marketing of West Indies cricket.

Although no actual figures were disclosed, Christopher Dehring, the chief marketing executive of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), pointed out that the amount donated by Desnoes & Geddes (the manufacturers of Red Stripe beer) will enable the WICB to transmit the final live throughout the Caribbean and the United States. However, a major clause in the five-year sponsorship deal is that the final of the tournament be contested in Jamaica, the home of Red Stripe, for the entire duration of the contract.

Desnoes & Geddes (D&G) introduced this clause because Red Stripe beer in not very popular in most of the other Caribbean countries and the sponsors feel that any other deal will be disadvantageous to them.

Dehring said that while other countries in the region will be against this clause, the WICB has no choice but to accept the deal as no sponsor from any other territory has come forward and the "pros'' far outweigh the "cons'' in this deal.

He stated that one of the main "pros'' of the deal was that D&G are giving the WICB a great opportunity to market Caribbean cricket in North American by beaming the final live to the United States.

The WICB and D&G are also working with the airlines, the Jamaica Tourist Board and hotels to develop very affordable packages for fans to travel to the grand championship weekend, which will also include the two semifinals in Jamaica.

Guyana will co-host the tournament in the initial stages this year but the role of joint-hosts in the early stages of the tournament will rotate among the other Caribbean countries.

The tournament will assume a format similar to the one applied by the International Cricket Council for the World Cup.

The eight participating teams have been placed in two round-robin groups with the winner of each group tackling the fourth-placed team while the runner-up battles the third-placed team in the quarterfinals, scheduled for Saturday, October 11.

After the quarters of group play in Jamaica and Guyana all action will be shifted to Jamaica for the grand Championship weekend, which will involve the semifinals (on October 17 and 18) and the final on Monday October 20, which is a holiday (Heroes Day) in Jamaica. The champions will collect US$12,000.

Hosts Jamaica, the Windward Islands, newcomers Bermuda and Trinidad and Tobago have been placed in Group A while Group B will comprise of Barbados, the Leeward Islands, debutants Canada and host country Guyana. Coloured clothing with names and numbers of players will be used for the first time in the Caribbean in the tournament.

T&T won the 50-overs competition last year when it known as the Shell Sandals. But while Red Stripe has filled the gap relinquished by Shell in the One-day game, they have pulled out of funding the four-day game, which was known as the Red Stripe Cup. No replacement has yet been found to take their place.

Source :: The Trinidad Express (https://www.trinidad.net/express/)