CricInfo Home
News Home

NEWS FOCUS
Rsa in Pak
NZ in India
Zim in Aus

Domestic
Other Series

As a part of this year's 1999 'Carnival of Cricket' theme for the Cricket World Cup the English Cricket Board (ECB) has come up with a host of tremendous ideas that will not only add that much needed glamour to this great event but will also take off that monotony and tedium of the game of cricket people complain of.

Among the events to be introduced to make this a truly memorable Cricket World Cup will be an indoor celebrity match and a concert at the Royal Albert Hall on May 11.

The Royal Albert Hall an elliptical tiered concert hall used for promenade concerts and best known as the home of the BBC proms can hold an audience of 8000 and it's the venue where the world's best known artists have performed over the decades.

These two events are being promoted by that famous rock promoter Harvey Goldsmith. The celebrity cricket eleven made up of stars from sport, television and film will be announced later this month but according to Lord's sources.

Robbie Williams one of the best loved and most famous rock stars of our time leads the list of cricket-loving celebrities. It will be recalled Williams visited Sri Lanka recently as a special ambassador for UNICEF, when he visited the north to publicise an immunology drive against polio.

Among the other famous celebrities to be included in the Pop XI are: Eric Clapton (Guitarist), Richard E. Grant (Actor), Mick Jagger (Singer), Sir Elton John (Musician), Trevor McDonald (Newsreader), Michael Parkison (Chat show host), Sir Tim Rice (Lyricist), Peter O'Toole (Actor), Bill Wyman (Former Rolling Stones member).

As for the concert, there will probably be an item from each of the participating twelve countries and one of our celebrated dance troupes is expected to make the journey.

'Channa-Upuli' dance ensemble that took London by storm last September is expected to be the choice of the organisers. On that occasion the local press described their performance as unique and Channa's choreography and the colourful costumes gave the whole affair a 'modern touch' that was a world of a difference from the usual Kandyan dancing. When the celebrity team is announced the official theme music for the World Cup: 'Life is a Carnival' will also be released and will be written by that famous pop star Dave Stewart while a cosmopolitan album is also on the cards. Whether there will be a song from Sri Lanka is not yet known and if there is who the singer or group will be is not yet known. The English Cricket Board is also hoping to attract a new generation to the game by taking on board television and pop stars who are favourites of the young ones.

England skipper David Gower assessing this whole new campaign said: ``A sporting audience would have no boundaries; there is no reason to think cricket should be watched by octogenarian MCC members. It obviously needs to appeal to the other 98% of the potential audience''. He said: 'I thought it was cruel and in my opinion, on that day, the better team went out, something we don't want to happen at our World Cup. I came straight back to Lord's to lobby for an extra third day if necessary to decide the World Cup Final.

``We don't want one of the finalists failing in a silly bowl out, something that should never happen in an event of such importance.'

The ECB decision means that if the two finalists are deadlocked after rain intervention - and the statisticians' calculations are unable to separate the teams for an outright winner to be declared in the showpiece Lord's final the World Cup trophy will be shared.

The ECB have spent almost 750,000 sterling pounds (Rs. 75 million) insuring the World Cup. The policy covers them for, among other things, severe weather disruption, public liability, unforeseen acts of God and many other risk factors involving a tournament which is expected to attract more than 500,000 spectators during its two months.

'We have identified all the risks and protected ourselves. You can't take chances with an event of this magnitude,' Browning said.

All 42 matches have been allocated a second 'rain day'. If no play is possible on either day, spectators will get a full refund. If between 10.2 overs and 24.5 overs of play are possible only, they will receive 50 per cent of their gate money.