The Rave

A good mate - and beige wearer - of the Brigade was snapping away at Antigua. Check out some of Andrew from Photosport’s pics…

Mighty work for the men and women in beige at Antigua - and The Times of London’s correspondent noticed you too!

…Lara expressed his dismay that the ground was never much more than half-full over the two days against Australia, but ticket prices that range from $25 (about £13) to $100 are prohibitively expensive. Those levels have been set by the competition organising committee rather than the ICC.

At least the Beige Brigade who follow New Zealand found plenty of reason to enjoy themselves. Jacob Oram claimed three wickets in a disciplined eight-over spell while Shane Bond again proved penetrative on a blameless pitch. Both were supported by immaculate wicketkeeping from Brendon McCullum. ..

We’ve had a fair few dodgy links to watch live footage of the CWC online -

However we think this is the best so far

mms://warm.cricketirc.com/WCCH1-8KSK

Interesting article from Chris at NZPA. It’s not a true West Indian World Cup - it’s a commercial tournament that just happens to be held in the West Indies. Very disappointing that even games featuring the Windies aren’t getting sold out…

A DAMP SQUIB IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE AS FANS FROZEN OUT

St John’s, Antigua, March 27 NZPA - West Indies versus Australia at the new Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground. It was a sports marketer’s dream.

It featured World Cup host against reigning world champion, and a chance to unveil a venue named after the Master Blaster, the favourite son known as King Viv.

But what seemed an irresistible launch to the Super Eights stage of World Cup all went sadly wrong, the “obvious” crowd-puller falling embarrassingly flat.

Admittedly , Antigua’s inclement weather did its part to put a dampener on proceedings but probably the International Cricket Council (ICC) were privately aghas t.

Australia batted first, scoring 322 runs but steady rain which started at the interval forced West Indies to postpone their reply until tomorrow.

Regardless of the leaden skies and opener Matthew Hayden’s, 158 there were worrying signs for the ICC before Brian Lara won the toss and asked Australia to bat.

A 9.30am start — not a time the average Antiguan is ready to earnestly begin anything — may have explained the sparse crowd when the game started.

However, the fact the crowd did not swell significantly — there were 10,000 at best — offered yet more evidence the average West Indian fan has been priced out of the showpiece in their own backyard.

Once the allocation was exhausted in the `party stand’ Antiguans were confronted with an asking price of up to $US100 ($NZ141) — $268 East Caribbean — and that’s frivolous spending even in this cricket-mad third world country.

Time and time again locals shrug and smile when asked if they are going to the games.

Kenya against Canada in St Lucia may have been economically feasible but as the tournament approaches its business end the old boisterous “jammin” throngs — who through the years perpetuated the myth of cricket’s carnival atmosphere in the Caribbean — are watching on TV, or have tuned out all together.

Cricket’s governing body has also systematically watered down the spectacle.

Musical instruments are forbidden, clouds of ganja smoke are non-existent and fans are slugged with another unwelcome expenditure

– told they can not bring in their own food.

At St Lucia’s Beausejour Stadium — the venue of New Zealand’s three group games — crowd numbers were artificially boosted by offering cut-price $US5 tickets to primary and secondary schools.

It all added up to a sanitised, almost contrived experience with the atmosphere becoming dependent on the input of overseas fans — the ubiquitous Barmy Army and equally repetitive green and gold Fanatics.

The early elimination of India and Pakistan has robbed the tournament of a certain flavour — a cruise ship booked out by Indian fans is now on the rocks — while the prohibitive cost of accommodation in price-gouging resorts has also had ramifications for the tourism industry, who bemoan cancelled bookings.

New Zealand’s Beige Brigade costed the World Cup at a conservative $1000 per person, per day.

Only a few official members have made the investment which ironically could prove wise given there are signs the Black Caps, at least, are value for money.  

All the matches are set for a 9.30am start which is 1345GMT. NZ is 12 hours ahead now. [Jamaica is one hour different to the rest of the West Indies.]

SUPER EIGHTS

Thu 29 March, starts 1.30am Friday NZ time (9.30am local time)
West Indies v NZ
Antigua Recreation Ground, St John’s, Antigua

Mon 2 April, starts 1.30am Tuesday NZ time (9.30am local time)
Bangladesh (tbc) v NZ 
Antigua Recreation Ground, St John’s, Antigua

Mon 9 April, starts 1.30am Tuesday NZ time (9.30am local time)
Ireland v NZ
Bourda, Georgetown, Guyana

Thu 12 April, starts 1.30am Friday NZ time (9.30am local time)
Sri Lanka v NZ 
National Cricket Stadium, St George’s, Grenada

Sat 14 April, starts 1.30am Sunday NZ time (9.30am local time)
South Africa v NZ 
National Cricket Stadium, St George’s, Grenada

Fri 20 April, starts 1.30am Saturday NZ time (9.30am local time)
Australia v NZ 
National Cricket Stadium, St George’s, Grenada

FINALS

Tue 24 April  1st Semi Final, starts 2.30am Wednesday NZ time (9.30am local time)
2 v 3
Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica (1 hr time difference)

Wed 25 April  2nd Semi Final, starts 1.30am Thursday NZ time (9.30am local time)
1 v 4
Beausejour Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia
 
Sat 28 April  Final, starts Sunday 1.30am NZ time (9.30am local time)
Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados

Mike chips away on the NZ Herald World Cup blog…

And as Mike from the Beige Brigade here in London said, “from there, anything is possible.”

“The threat in the Super Eights definitely comes from the Australians and the slogging and slinging Sri Lankans,” he added. “But if we are in trouble we can just apply the logic from the recent Chappell-Hadlee series, field first and concede 320 plus, because we know we can chase it down.”

A bloody big beige ‘congrats’ to Kate Weir from Linwood College for her effort to win the 2007 NZ National Spelling Bee in Wellington on Saturday. The prize was a Beige Brigade shirt, hat, beanie - oh, and a trip to Washington DC for the mother of all spelling bees, The Scripps National Spelling Bee. If you can’t sleep because you need to know what is happening with that mighty comp, look here.

We sent a note to Cricket Australia trying to get a video copy of the half-time entertainment at the Gabba which featured our Beige Brigade legends Rodelle, Logie and Big Red - no go but a nice email response from the CA boys nevertheless!

Dear Paul at Beige Brigade HQ,

Thank you for your email regarding participation in event entertainment during the season. Unfortunately there is no televsion coverage of the event entertainment,a direct feed is sent to the scoreboard but nothing is recorded.
Cricket Australia’s Events team, however, remember your friend well and thank him for his efforts.

Kind Regards

Public Enquiries
Cricket Australia | 60 Jolimont Street | Jolimont VIC 3002 | Australia
Tel: +61 3 9653 9999 | Fax: +61 3 9653 9922 www.cricket.com.au

Always good to read that the Beige Brigade reinforcements have started to arrive for the Super 8s in the Windies. This is the blog of the chick writing columns online for the Herald. Good to see Mr NZPA cricket, Chris Barclay working hard under the influence of a couple of beers too (on the right of the photo)!

New Wellington A-League football supporters’ group, Yellow Fever, is being unleashed by a mate of ours - Greenie (he’s the bloke to the immediate right of the soccer ball at the top of the photo). He mentions a meeting with the Beige Brigade in the DomPost story - we had a bagel together on Willis St in Wellington earlier this week and talked absolute rubbish for 60 minutes. We’re now investigating opening a consultancy to deranged sports fans looking to fire up supporters’ clubs. Anyway, well done that man! [The website for Yellow Fever is being pulled together and will be here: http://www.yellowfever.co.nz/]

“Every club needs its supporters and we will be calling on an extensive footballing network over the next few weeks. We’re extremely passionate about it and we can’t thank Terry Serepisos (100 per cent owner) enough for doing this. Greene, who is one of “a dozen or so hardcore members so far”, said he had met with the founder of the Beige Brigade and picked up some key ideas on how to get things kick-started.”

Beige Brigade tourist and (one of) Winton’s finest, Wadsy had a starring role in the sports pages of the Southland Times recently.

“Central Western had done well to recover after being 102 for five at one stage, the innings build around solid knocks from the Wadworth brothers, Simon and James.

The total of 217 looked an imposing one for Metro, which had not been forced to chase a total of more than 200 this season..”