BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Former winners Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo hailed this year’s ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup, to be staged from June 3 to 29 in the Caribbean and the United States, as “out of this world”.
The two former West Indies captains were part of promotional activities on Thursday in the Barbados capital of Bridgetown and the American city of New York that highlighted the start of the 100-day countdown to the tournament.
The 100-day countdown also marked the start of the general sale of tickets for the global showpiece, and the launch of the “Out of this world” promotional campaign for the World Cup was launched with larger-than-life cricket balls landin in the nine host locations.
Gayle was part of a spectacle of colour and music during a parade through the streets of the Barbados capital that culminated in the Golden Square Freedom Park.
“We have some fantastic entertainers within the sport, and you’re going to see them live in the West Indies and USA this year at the T20 World Cup,” the self-proclaimed, “Universe Boss” said.
“You’re going to see the likes of Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell, David Warner, Glenn Maxwell, youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shaheen Afridi – the list goes on. It’s going to be a cracking, entertaining event.”
Promotional events also took place in the Caribbean nations of Guyana, Trinidad, Antigua, and St Vincent, as well as the American cities of Dallas and Miami, where matches will also be staged, with sporting talent present and fans enjoying cricketing activities.
Bravo and former England pacer Liam Plunkett took centre stage hitting sixes in Times Square in New York City with local fans and players.
“I think the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is going to be an incredible event and here in New York,” Bravo said. “For the first time, you are going to have the greatest players competing against each other. It’s going to create history.
“It’s about time that cricket made its mark here in the USA, and people here now can look forward to seeing their favourite players and can experience it first-hand.
He added: “The fact that it’s co-hosted between the U.S. and the West Indies is good for cricket. It’s fantastic for our region in the Caribbean to be able to show the world that we are able host events as big as the World Cup.
“We are also happy that we are able to contribute to the growth of the development of cricket in the USA.”
The start of the countdown also marked the launch of the official campaign film, ‘Out of this World’, which features T20 superstars headed by former West Indies white-ball captain Kieron Pollard and United States pacer Ali Khan, who has been a regular in the Caribbean Premier League T20 tournament.
The film depicts the various locations of the T20 World Cup matches and has been created to appeal to existing cricket lovers and attract new audiences.