By Neto Baptiste
Nationals will be able to purchase tickets at half price for the opening match of the Apex Test Series between West Indies and England, starting March 8 here at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium at North Sound.
This was revealed by CEO of Cricket West Indies (CWI), Johnny Grave, who said that preparations are on course here as the two teams get ready to battle for the newly-minted Richards-Botham Trophy, named in honour of legends Sir Vivian Richards and Lord Ian Botham.
“We have to use every waking hour to make sure we are absolutely ready between now and that first ball at 10:00 Tuesday morning, but so far, we are tracking well. We are just trying to put every last detail in place just to make it as smooth as possible and with the TV crew arriving on the weekend, that’s a major component we have to put in place,” he said.
“What we have done for this Test match is that all locals can get fifty percent off ticket prices so tickets will be as low as EC$25:00 for any local who shows his passport or national ID,” he added.
Grave said that ticket sales have been progressing well, rivalling figures produced during a home series between both teams back in 2019.
“The Antigua, Barbados and Grenada Test matches, obviously being great tourist destinations with England fans, have been popular. I think at the moment we are tracking similar ticket sales to the 2019 tour, across the entire tour, and obviously that involved additional games because we played three One Day Internationals so effectively we’ll be up [there, and]compared to 2019 despite all the challenges that traveling fans face in terms of trying to get here, and get through all of their testing protocols and the uncertainty, I guess, we still exist with Covid-19,” the CEO said.
The second Test in the Apex Test Series will be played at Kensington Oval, Barbados, from March 16-20 with the third and final contest at the idyllic Grenada National Stadium from March 24-28.
The five-match Twenty20 series in Bridgetown was settled 3-2 in West Indies’ favour.