Cricket World Cup 2007: It's All Over...

At least the Trinidad leg of it is.


I'll miss waking up at 3:45am to leave my house at 4:45am to reach to the Volunteer Break Out Tent in King George IV Park.

I'll miss being stationed at the Stadium and escorting VIPs from the shuttle in the Stadium to the VIP entrance on Tragarete Road.

I'll miss being VIP4 on the radio and calling in the VIPs.


I met a lot of great people...and a couple of not so great ones...and even one or two that I knew from before.
All in all it was an experience like no other, and it was definitely a lot of fun.

I was definitely "in my element" as they say. LOL.
I'm now left with lots and lots of happy memories and two cds of over 500 pictures to show for it.















Now it's on to Super 8. GO WINDIES!!

Cricket World Cup Update: Park & Ride Info

(Click the pic to enlarge.)

Pics of the Oval

Shhh...
We were not supposed to take pictures of the Oval during our tour, but it was looking SO SWEET ah tief ah lil ting...

All the stands have been decked off and draped in the ICC Cricket World Cup banners, so no more BG/Scotiabank Stand, CARIB Stand, CLICO etc.

This is the view from the QPCC Members Stand.

Party Stand in the far right of this pic.

Traffic Restrictions for CWC 2007

(clickto make the image larger)

Cricket World Cup Update: Questions and Answers

So based on the questions Anonymous asked me previously, as well as the ones that I've been getting from persons in my family, at the office and anyone else who knows that I'm a volunteer: this post is dedicated to answering those questions as best as I can.



Anonymous asked:
Any safety tips suggested?
I would tell anyone whether local or abroad, just BE AWARE of your surroundings.
Half the time when I read these emails that are forwarded about "real life crime experiences in Trinidad" I just steups, cause people tend to do stupid/careless things (like not lock their car doors, leaving things on the seat of your car etc.) and are suprised when horrible things happen to them.

Areas to avoid?
Again, if you going anywhere, BE AWARE.
Don't go exploring and wuss yet by yuhself in a country that yuh not familiar with.
I think das just common sense.

Transport to and from the Oval from the airport?
Now Anonymous...Why exactly would you be travelling directly from the airport to the Oval?
Where are you staying? Shouldn't you go there and check in first?
But to answer your question: There are taxis available at the airport and they will take you almost anywhere, at a cost of course.

That's it for the questions from Anonymous.
Now for the friends, family and coworkers.

Why dey must tell yuh what to wear?
Nobody not telling yuh what tuh wear.
Sponsors have paid their millions of dollars to get their name plastered all over the place and they don't want you coming in with your opposing sponsor t-shirt and jumbieing dey sponsorship.
Surely you doh only have Digicel and RBTT clothing in your closet?

Why we can't bring in bottled water?
Dey say allyuh could use it as missiles.
That's the best I could come up with.

So how ah could bring in meh water then?
I would suggest a modern day version of suck-a-bags and use some Ziploc bags.
Freeze yuh water, put it in yuh collapsible 12x12x12 cooler and yuh good tuh go.

Why de prices inside dey so high?
International competition...international prices.
Bring as much as you can in your cooler to help defer any costs you may occur.

Why dey must block off de streets?
Security is the main reason.
Terrorism...9/11...blah blah blah...You can thank Osama or whoever for that one.
But they've revised the streets and made the zone a lot smaller.
Check today's newspaper for details.

Well that's it for now.
Keep the questions coming and I'll try to answer thetm as best as I could.

VOLUNTEER UPDATE:
I worked at UWI SPEC on Thursday and Friday and had a FANTASTIC time!
Got a tour of QPO today and it's looking GREAT! (Took pics even though we not supposed to...Will post pics later)
Back to work (regular work not volunteer work) this week and then working at QPO from the 19th to the 25th.

EXCITEMENT ah tell yuh!!

Cricket World Cup Update #3: Kit Out Day and Accreditation

Date: Saturday 3rd March 2007
Venue: Elizabeth Street Stand (formerly CARIB Stand), Queen's Park Oval.
Time: 7:00...yes...in the morning.

So yuh girl, her g/f anf her g/f's daughter found themselves at the Oval at the ungodly hour of 6:40am.

As there was no clear indication of where we suhold sit (people were all over the place) we scoped out the scene for a little bit.
The seats were dirty as construction is still in progress...so is REAL DUST!
When we saw the placement of the speakers we then choose our seats, wiped them and sat.

At about 7:45ish, an anouncement was made that those persons sitting in the sun needed to move further east in the stands. And guess who was in the "sun"? Yours Truly.

*grumble*
Move.
Choose a next seat.
Wipe seat.
Sit.

At around 8ish now (an hour later than we were supposed to start according to our schedules) the lady in charge of the voulnteers, Lisa-Marie Alexander, comes on the microphone saying, "We have just been informed by security, that we should not be beyond the CAUTION tape, so those persons needed to move back to the westerly side of the stand."

*WHAT DE??*
*grumble*

This last move/wipe seat action, combined with the whole 'we here since7 o' clock and allyuh always telling us to be on time and yet nobody was here on time to start the damn thing and we couldn't even get a cup of hot tea while we waiting fuh allyuh'...got people who were already simmering real mad.

Man...volunteers start to make noise.

We ended up getting a less than half hearted apology, which ended up being more of a lecture on how we should react in situations that we may not like in our volunteer duties.

It was funny.

Because the more Lisa spoke, the less the volunteers wanted to hear.
I was almost on the floor with laughter...ah mighta end up on the floor if it wasn't for all de damn dust.

Anyhoo...the show eventually got on the road.
Mr. Ian Welsh, CEO of the LOC (Local Organising Committee) addressed us.
We got breakfast. (Food to quiet the masses during the long lulls of nothingness).
We had a dry run of an evacuation procedure done with the ODPM. (I went to Kidsworld during the evacuation as I had to get a gift for a party my sons had to attend later).
We then went into our various groups to get briefed by our Functional Managers and then sent to collect our Accrediation passes and uniforms.

So below is an outline of how I felt things went on the day:

The Good
1. We got our uniforms.
Ah hear ah talk that we bringing out a J'ouvert band next year with dem uniforms.

2. We got accredited.
I didn't take long to get my accreditation as my g/f had already told me that mine was ready.
So I just sent her a text to tell her I was coming across for mine and it was ready and waiting for me. (No I eh skip no lines, I waited just like everyone else).

The Bad
1. The Walking
From the evacuation to the walking to King George to collect your acceditation pass to walking back to the CLICO box to collect your uniforms.
I thought of it as physical training to ensure we could make it in the hot sun on the day.

2. The Cleaning
And it was from since the Friday before in UWI SPEC we cleaning seats eh.
I told my fellow volunteers we had to look at it as us assisting in getting the Oval ready in time.

The Ugly
1. The uniform.
Man...dat ting bright! Jeez!
Yuh cyar miss it...ah sure allyuh see people in some bringht orange things walking the road this morning heading to the east.
I eh hear one person say anything nice abut the uniform.
Plus it fit badly.
But once I give my seamstress dat and she buss two dart in it...I go throw some accessories on dat and I go make it look FAB!

2. The volunteers behaviour.
Some of us really get on bad.
There were other ways of getting your point across. BUT...

3. Lisa-Marie's half-hearted apology...dat eh cut it.
She could have looked at it form the volunteers side of things and been a little more genuine.
Yuh cyar call de people rabble-rousers and expect to be happy about that.

Despite all of the hiccups on the Saturday, I'm still liking the excitement of it all and can't wait to work on Thursday and Friday.

Cricket World Cup: Volunteer Update

Sitting at home the Thursday after Carnival minding my own business when the phone rings.
It's the CWC people and they're calling to tell me I got selected for the VIP/Protocol area.

Me: YAYY!!!

Them: We have training tomorrow at the Oval and Saturday at UWI SPEC.

Me: Huh? : (good thing I'm on vacation)

Them: Okay, so see you there!

Me: Okay! (excited I got picked for VIP/Protocol after already having made up my mind that I probably hadn't)


Training was great. We had the privilege of being tutored by Sandra Basheer.
And I finally realised that when I grow up I want to be Sandra. LOL.
But seriously, this amazing woman just cemented in my mind that this is my field and I m on the right track.

And the more involved I get the more excited I get too.

Will try to keep giving regular updates, but this coming month I know will be chaos.

Other than last Friday and Saturday for VIP training, today I had First Aid training.
This Tuesday afternoon is a tour of the airport. (can't forget that I have to go to class afterwards).
Friday is Match Day Simulation from 1:00pm at UWI SPEC.
Sunday is Kitting Out Day from 7:00am at the Oval.
Monday is Match Day Simulation. All day at UWI SPEC.

You get the idea.

If I can't update daily, I will DEFINITELY have a HUGE update at the end of it all, which is at the end of March.

Cricket World Cup Dry Run and Training Sessions.

Having been selected as a volunteer for the CWC 2007 World Cup, I was asked to be involved in a 'dry run' during the Trinidad vs Guyana match held last Wednesday. (we won btw).

We had to report to the Queen's Park Oval on Tuesday evening for a briefing. While waiting to be briefed, I decided to take some pics with my camera phone. (Hence the low resoution of the pics).

So these are the pics from Tuesday evening.

View of the field from the CARIB Stand (to be called the ELizabeth St. Stand)

View of the QPCC Members Pavillion from the CARIB Stand (The pavillion will host the VIP's)

(From the right) Trini Possee under construction, RBL/CLICO Stand (name to be changed as well) and Gerry Gomez Media Centre

BG/Scotiabank Stand (will be called the Lindsay Grant stand during the World Cup)

One the Wednesday of the game (WAIT! Did I mention that we had to get to the Oval for 6:00? Yes. 6 in the MORNING!! Anyhoo...I digress) I was assigned to VIP/Protocol area (the area I'm hoping to stay in for the CWC, either that or Admin.)

Now doh study how VIP/Protocol sounds all nice and important and rubbing shoulders with the "who's who" in society. (I assume this is the reason why nearly every Tom, Dick and Chin Lee put dey name down for this area.)

It wasn't.

I had umbrella duty. And it isn't as bad as it sounds, we simply had to escort those people who arrived on the buses in case it was raining at the time (and it wasn't, so piece of cake). Thing is though, when people heard umbreall duty nobody volunteered except moi. It ended up being me and a next guy.

One that day in particular, we were dealing with the people who the ICC invited and it was more in the capacity of Hopitality rather than VIP. For the CWC however, it'll be Head's of state, ICC people, the whole nine yards.

Pictures taken during the match on Wednesday (same camera phone)

Crowd in the CARIB Stand (2nd level)

Crowd in the CARIB Stand (1st level)

View of our boys fielding from one of the corporate boxes.

Same place, next shot

The view from the corporate box was SWEET !!

==============

Saturday 20th January 2007 & Sunday 21st January 2007: Training Days

9:00 am to 4:00pm

Saturday's training didn't start off too well.

We were supposed to report to the Elizabeth St. entrance and when we got there were told it wasn't there and we had to walk the length of the Oval and around the corner. Got there, checked to see if your name was on the list and signed in.

Went to the CLICO box to get an overview of what the training would entail. We were then split into groups and sent to trek to another part of the Oval, to one of the boxes for training. (My group had to go back to the main area because the rooms weren't ready/ac wasn't working/too small)

Point to note (and I told them this) no housekeeping was done. i.e no one told us where the exits were in case of an emergency, the restroom locations, what time lunch and breaks would be etc.

We finally settled in. (still no talk of breakfast or when lunch is eh, thank God ah had meh fruit to chomp on)

Things did start to improve though as we got some very nice binders with our training info.

The training covered everything from who is the ICC, WICB, the event sponsors (MOST important), mascot, format of the games and so on.

It also included information on Working as a Team, Risk and Safety, Service Excellence and basics on cricket.

They covered EVERYTHING.

And if you weren't excited before aobut being a volunteer I think it gave you that excitement.

And without revealing too much of what is planned, I can guaranteee that anyone attending the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 will have a SPECTACULAR, SPECTATOR EXPERIENCE!

Volunteer

For those of you who’ve been living under a rock and or couldn’t be bothered, the Cricket World Cup 2007 is being hosted in the Caribbean.YES! Right here!!

I won’t get into the whole-package-bidding-sunset-application and the related drama though. Suffice to say dat nuttin cyar happen here without a lil bachannal.

But on with the story…

So one day in a taxi on meh way to St. James, ah hear Paul Keens Douglas on de radio talking bout volunteering duh de Cricket World Cup. Ah say eh heh?
Next day (or it may have actually been a few weeks later) yuh girl log on to http://www.cricketworldcup.com/ and enter up she info and ting, hit submit and get back her confirmation email. Niceness.

Couple days after dat (might have been a week), I got a call that I had an interview on Saturday 28th October at 2:15pm, WICB box. Niceness self!

So...on Saturday evening ah reach down (or rather up) in de people dem place, filled out a form (yuh name, yuh address. areas yuh interested in, uniform size,e which games yuh want tuh work etc.) and sat down to wait for my interview.

Met with Ms. Sybil Jack-Valentine (nice lady) and got the usual tell me about yourself (I does never know how tuh answer dat question), ask me what I knew about cricket, if I understood you wouldn’t get paid (apparently some people had asked how much you would be paid as a volunteer) blah blah, that kinda thing.

I left the interview feeling pretty okay. They’re supposed to contact the successful applicants during the next two weeks.

So I’m keeping my fingers crossed...wish me luck! *crosses fingers*