Monique Devereux, former chief reporter at the Herald and now Christchurch correspondent for Radio New Zealand, is at the Cricket World Cup. She brings nzherald.co.nz regular news and views from the West Indies
KEY POINTS:
The World Cup is well and truly underway, with almost a week of Super 8 games dealt with.
But the hype is still lacking, at least here in Antigua.
As the television cameras are no doubt showing at home, the seats in the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Groundare nowhere near full today, as the Black Caps take on the home team.
More surprisingly the ground was not sold out earlier in the week when Australia and the West Indies played.
Reigning champs versus the home side in a Super 8 match-up – if there has been a game so far that should have enticed a capacity crowd, it should have been that one.
Not to mention it also was a public holiday in Antigua specifically to let these supposedly cricket-mad locals enjoy a great game.
But they did not come along. The 20,000 seat stadium had just 11,000 bottoms on the seats.
The supermarket cashier I spoke to on my way home last night says the reason was not the weather (it rained) but the outrageously priced tickets that are out of reach for the average Antiguan or Barbudan.
The average annual take-home pay here is around $6000. The tickets to the Australia game, even in the cheap seats, were not selling for less than $130.
The punters may want to be here, but they can realistically not afford it.
Driving into the ground yesterday I heard Sir Vivian Richards on the radio, talking about how wonderful the new stadium is and how the locals should be so proud to have it on their doorstep.
He was hoping to see more people here today.
His wish has not come to fruition. Only 9,500 people have come through the gates.
Sir Viv himself is, of course, here. I just bumped into him in the media cafeteria – literally.
I stood on his foot as I backed away from the fridge, not knowing he was waiting to get a drink.
"Minnow stamps on cricket legend" could well have been the next World Cup scandal headline.
Luckily he had big solid shoes on and barely seemed to notice my dainty little bare foot at all.
