The English descend on cricket’s ‘mecca’

There was hardly any seating space at Kensington Oval this morning as hundreds of England fans, as well as locals, converged on Fontabelle, St Michael to watch West Indies battle England for the prestigious Wisden Trophy.

From as early as 9 a.m. scores of fans entered the gates to secure their seats. Some of them proudly adorned with England flags and other British memorabilia as they anticipated the start of the game.

West Indies won the toss and elected to bat first.

There was one noticeable change to the England team and that was that one of their premier fast bowlers in Stuart Broad who has over 400 Test wickets was omitted from the starting eleven.

And that was a disappointment for Aaron Cowdrey who said he came to Barbados to watch Broad bowl at Kensington Oval but unfortunately he would not now get the chance to see his favourite player.

“ I am from Nottingham so I wanted to see Stuart Broad, but he has been dropped so I won’t be seeing him today, but I hope Joe Root gets a lot of runs,” he told Barbados TODAY, adding that he believed England would win the game in four and a half days.

Meanwhile, fellow England supporter Max Davis said that since he was here for three days he was hoping that England could wrap up the game quickly.

“We are here for three days so I hope it goes that long. I am happy for a win but who knows how long,” he said adding that he was looking forward to when West Indies captain Jason Holder hits the field.

“From the West Indies your captain Mr Holder is very exciting. The English players we see a lot of back home. So it is just exciting to see them somewhere as beautiful as this,” Davis said.

His father George Davis who was a former cricketer who played at Kensington Oval some 40 years ago said that he believed England would defeat West Indies in four days.

“ I have to back England as they are coming off a very good win in Sri Lanka and we hope that we will continue that momentum. I think that it will be a four-day game. It is a big bet because we have two spinners and you guys do not have any spinners. So, someone has got a good decision, and someone made a bad choice,” Davis said.

However, one West Indies fan said that he believed the West Indies could win the game in four days. He was standing by the Party Stand’s entrance where a group assembled to taste some of Barbados’ finest rum. He did not give Barbados TODAY his name.

Paul Warburton said that he believed England would win the Wisden Trophy in four days.

“I thought we might have had a couple of wickets early but we haven’t because the West Indies are batting well now, so maybe four days but we will have to wait and see how it goes,” he said, adding that he was supporting James Anderson.

“I am a big fan of James Anderson because he is from the area where I live and he has got the most wickets in the history of pace bowling. So he is my number one,” Warburton told Barbados TODAY.

Meanwhile Canadian James White told Barbados TODAY he knew nothing about cricket but he was here to party and enjoy the beautiful weather.

“We are here for one day so we are going all out,” White said.

But while supporters were having a blast from both sides of the fan base, all did not go well for Barbados TODAY. After speaking to several fans before the start of the game the publication was subsequently escorted out of Kensington Oval by management who claimed that the media house did not have permission to interview fans inside of the facility without proper accreditation to do so. This, despite earlier gaining admittance to the facility after showing media identification at the entrance. Some of the fans sitting in the stalls booed the officials shouting: “Let them stay they are doing a great job.”

So much for promoting and covering the glorious summer game at home! (LG)