Being Outside Cricket

It’s hardly surprising that the Caribbean is a popular place to come and watch England play: what isn’t there to like, warm weather during the depths of winter while watching cricket has a certain allure to begin with. Then there is the romance of the West Indies in cricketing terms to add to that.

Spending the day on a tube at 35,000 feet for 8 hours is a small price to pay, though with my travel industry head on, it remains endlessly amazing that places reliant on tourism often don’t seem to grasp that condemning arrivals to a wait of well over an hour to get through immigration is rarely the best first impression. These are the kinds of things that people comment on to friends and acquaintances.

No matter. The welcome is exceptionally friendly as might be expected, and the volume of people coming for the cricket comprised the majority of the flight, meaning if nothing else there is clear demand to come and mix a holiday with seeing the game.

From a ridiculously small sample of two people, there also appears to be a good level of interest locally, on the back of the West Indies’ dominant display in Barbados, which is surely a healthy state of affairs if it comes to pass in terms of the crowd.

A brief post this evening then, a more detailed one tomorrow, as the blog attempts not to become too much of a travel related one, and with a proper preview tomorrow.