Dominica will host the second Test Match between West Indies and Zimbabwe from March 20 – 24 at the Windsor Park Sport Stadium.
The Dominica Cricket Association held a press conference last Friday where officials informed nationals about the upcoming encounter.
In 2009, Dominica hosted two, one day internationals between West Indies and Bangladesh and since then has hosted the West Indies team versus several cricketing nations. Gifford Walsh, Event Manager at the Dominica Cricket Association gave a brief overview of the past matches Dominica has been host to.
“In 2010, we hosted West Indies versus South Africa, in 2011 we hosted West Indies versus India, in 2012, we hosted West Indies Women’s versus India Women’s and again in 2012, we hosted West Indies versus Australia. Earlier in 2003, we only hosted the West Indies cricket team versus South Africa.”
Marketing Liaison Sobers Esprit says Dominica is emerging as one of the leading cricket venues in the region.
“We are fortunate to be hosting one of the test matches in the early part of the series so again, for us I think this is a testament of the tremendous effort of the Dominica Cricket Association, by stakeholders in cricket and the fans over these past few years. We believe Dominica is now emerging as one of the leading venues for international cricket in the Caribbean. I daresay, pretty soon the world of international cricket will have to take notice of Dominica [when] we will be considered among the venues for hosting T20’s or 50/50 matches for the World Cup. That is true for a number of reasons: the ambiance of the Windsor Park Sport Stadium, the passion of the fans and the tremendous support that we have given to the West Indies team and Cricket in general over the past few years. For us we have some clear objectives in terms of hosting international cricket and this year again, we just want to reiterate some of those objectives because I think it is important for us to understand why we are doing this.”
Minister for Tourism Hon. Ian Douglas also addressed Friday’s ceremony. He believes that the hosting of cricket matches here has major potential for the development of the island’s tourism sector.
“As Tourism Minister, I believe that this test match is in fact a tourism event. It is an event that holds the potential to bring in persons into the destination. Since we have been enjoying test matches in Dominica, we have put our best foot forward and we have shown the region and indeed the entire world that though small, along with a small population, we are capable of hosting Cricket on an international level and for that we ought to be proud. For that we have actually made ourselves Ambassadors for the Commonwealth of Dominica and we have been doing it and I’m very proud of all those who have placed Dominica on the map through the medium of sports and cricket.”