Cricket World Cup - Caribbean April 2007 - Part 1

A lot to get through from our April trip to the Caribbean for the Cricket World Cup so will do this in a few parts. Our brothers Chris and Karl had organised their 5 week tour for the cricket months ago including a couple of yacht charters. About a month before the trip Karl had a few withdrawals from his tour which left some space on the boat for us and some spare cricket tickets....how could we refuse the opportunity to see the sun again, relax on a boat for 10 days and see a bit of cricket (and our brothers) in between?? So off we went (thanks to a very understanding boss allowing Ben some time off during a very busy period). First was the 8 hour flight to Barbados followed by a four hour wait at the airport for our connection to Grenada where we joined the boys with one night in a hotel before we joined our chartered catamaran for the next 10 days.

First day in Grenada we did a tour of the island by taxi (read toyota van) including Annadale "Falls" where we had a refreshing swim and Chris and Karl took the opportunity to have one of their few showers for the trip as you can see in the photos below:





Ben also used the opportunity to practice some action photography as Chris and Karl took the leap
off the viewing area (while Inge, in fancy new pink hat, watched on!):





Here's the "professional" doing the jump into the very shallow water from the top of the cliff about
30m up - these islanders will do anything to make a few bucks! We also spent a nice afternoon at the
beach and swimming in the crystal clear water whilst watching some beach cricket, West Indian style
(where they were actually playing 11 a side and bowling 6 ball overs from opposite ends of the pitch!!).



Here is the taxi we got on our way somewhere - apparently
he didn't have any seats in because he had just been transporting
cricket gear for one of the World Cup teams and hadn't had a
chance to put them back in yet!



Next it was off to our first match (Australia v Sri Lanka Super 8 Match) at the new Grenada stadium which
looked a lot better that the old stand in the picture below which was ruined by the cyclone a few years back.




There were plenty of Husseys in the crowd but these girls decided they needed to advertise the fact,
just in case we weren't sure!!



Finally the cricket got underway with Shaun Tait wondering why he was in the Caribbean.....
.....and with figures like these, no wonder!!



At least Bracken was holding it together for us......
....and has been taking "thumbs up" lessons from McGrath!



The legend himself meanwhile was soaking it all up in his usual hands on hips style!



Before coming on to bowl another useful spell.



Tait also managed to get things back on track and picked up a few useful wickets.



And with Hogg in great "tongue out" form, the Sri Lankans never really got on top and posted a fairly
ordinary score given the scared little buggers rested Murali and Vaas who couldn't face being
destroyed by Hayden and Ponting!



So Inge resorted to her usual pose at the cricket when it doesn't meet her high standards -
out came a book!



The Auusies made a pretty good start of the run chase and Hayden and Ponting played some nice shots....



Prompting one yobbo on the hill to bare his arse, possibly asking that old Abba question
"can you see the buns, Fernando?" or should that have been hear the drums??!!
Jayasuriya was looking suitably worried.....



........as Ponting cruised to another fifty and soon the Aussies needed only 1 to win
with plenty of overs remaining....



......so Punter decided to finish it off in style with a massive six, giving the Aussies a convincing win
and the psychological edge over Sri Lanka going into the finals.



Chris lets us know how much we won by......while some other Aussie spectators celebrate at the
House of Lords - the first combined mechanic and bar I have seen so far in my travels! Well, as
they say, any port in a storm!



We then walked back to our boat around the harbour at St Georges



And here it is!



Actually, we did a little better than that - Karl had chartered
a fantastic catamaran with 4 double cabins with their own
ensuite and including skipper (Jeff) and our hostess for the week,
Dany. Here Inge asks why we didn't take the previous boat??!!



After a great day's cricket and some well earned rest overnight, it was time to get underway for 3 days of sailing before returning again to Grenada for our second match, the final Super 8 match against the Kiwis. So I will wrap this first part of the "Caribbean Series" up with a couple of pictures of the boat as we headed off towards Union Island.



Coming up in the next posts: Union Island, Tobago Cays with lots of underwater shots, Australia v NZ and beautiful Bequia Island, our final stop. Until then, enjoy!

Ben & Inge