Hoping to soon have flood lights at the Arnos Vale Playing Field

EDITOR: Congrats must go to the organizers of the Vincy Premier League (VPL) and also the crowned champion. I take this opportunity in congratulating our own Dr. Kishore Shallow on being the President of Cricket West Indies (CWI) and I do wish him all the best in his role.

Cricket continues to play a vital role in uniting us as a people and helps in enhancing friendships. We know that the tournament was exciting and created lots of interest. It is a pity that games were not held in the late evening where persons could have attended after work and even on weekends in the late evenings where families would have attended in larger [numbers].

This was not possible due to the lack of flood lights at the Arnos Vale Playing Field where the games were held. So I would hope that with the renovations being done at the moment at the Arnos Vale Playing Field and with the current CWI president being a Vincentian that we would see flood lights installed. This would aid in many areas.

We would see, hopefully games of the shorter version played at Arnos Vale. These games would include also international and regional games along with the local games. So when international games are played here during the late evenings, it would attract visitors to our country and so will increase the revenue, for we would have more visitors coming and so the hotels, taxi drivers and stores and supermarkets, along with restaurants will benefit. Added to that would be more revenue to the government from taxes gained from passengers. We would also see more families attending and so will add closer bond in the family.
At the moment we are at a disadvantage in comparison with some countries since we can not host T/20 and T/10 games of regional and international standard since most of these games are played in late evenings going into the night. So while other countries are benefiting from this product called Cricket as a tourism product we are missing out on it.
It is my hope and prayer that flood lights would be installed at the Arnos Vale playing field and we like most Caribbean countries can have the privilege of hosting white ball crickets played in most cases in the late evening. I do believe that many persons are looking forward for such a forward move. After all we are in the 21st century and the age of advancement. Let us not be left behind but be progressing as a nation in this very important area.

Kennard King