St John's, Antigua
November, 2011
Monday, November 28 St Johns, Antigua
There is not much to see in Antigua, so I took everyone to the Antigua Recreation Park, home of Viv Richards, Andy Roberts, Curtley Ambrose and Richie Richardson. It was a 20 min walk. We met John and walked straight into the ground. It is no longer in use, because they built the Viv Richards ground 2 years ago for the world cup. We walked straight onto the ground, and kicked the footy surrounded by the Andy Roberts stand, the Viv Richards stand and the Richie Richardson stand. We jumped the fence and walked up the members grandstand. As we were exploring, going in and out of closed doors, we wound up in the office of the Leeward Islands Cricket Association.
The lady working there was very nice and showed us the players rooms where we saw the 100s honor roll and 5-wicket honor roll. This was the ground where Brian Lara scored both his 375 in 2001 and his 400 in 2004, the highest individual test innings in history. It is also the ground where Viv Richards scored 100 off 56 balls in 1986, the quickest test century. Australians who have scored centuries here include Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden, Mark Taylor and Mark Waugh.
The lady told us that Viv Richards comes everyday for lunch at 12pm, so she showed us where he eats. We sat there and waited until1pm, looking forward to taking a photo with the great man, but he did not show up. We ate some traditional curried goat while we waited. Some former local players came to eat and they told us that Viv was off the island today. When we asked them where he was, they said that he was in Australia!
There is not much to see in Antigua, so I took everyone to the Antigua Recreation Park, home of Viv Richards, Andy Roberts, Curtley Ambrose and Richie Richardson. It was a 20 min walk. We met John and walked straight into the ground. It is no longer in use, because they built the Viv Richards ground 2 years ago for the world cup. We walked straight onto the ground, and kicked the footy surrounded by the Andy Roberts stand, the Viv Richards stand and the Richie Richardson stand. We jumped the fence and walked up the members grandstand. As we were exploring, going in and out of closed doors, we wound up in the office of the Leeward Islands Cricket Association.
The lady working there was very nice and showed us the players rooms where we saw the 100s honor roll and 5-wicket honor roll. This was the ground where Brian Lara scored both his 375 in 2001 and his 400 in 2004, the highest individual test innings in history. It is also the ground where Viv Richards scored 100 off 56 balls in 1986, the quickest test century. Australians who have scored centuries here include Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden, Mark Taylor and Mark Waugh.
The lady told us that Viv Richards comes everyday for lunch at 12pm, so she showed us where he eats. We sat there and waited until1pm, looking forward to taking a photo with the great man, but he did not show up. We ate some traditional curried goat while we waited. Some former local players came to eat and they told us that Viv was off the island today. When we asked them where he was, they said that he was in Australia!