By Dexter Theodore
Two months to the day after hosting the first day-night first-class fixture in the Caribbean, when West Indies A took on England A, the ultra-modern Beausejour Cricket Ground in Gros Islet is poised to make history again when the West Indies plays Zimbabwe tomorrow, 10th May 2006, in the first day-night One Day International cricket match ever played in the Caribbean.
Completed in 2002, the Beausejour Cricket Ground is a state-of-the-art facility which presently seats 12,000 spectators and will be increased to 20,000 in 2007 when Saint Lucia hosts a semi-final and the Blue Group in the Cricket World Cup 2007.
The Beausejour is the only cricket ground in the West Indies fitted with flood lights. When he was here earlier this week to assess Saint Lucia's state of preparedness for the World Cup, Don Lockerbie, the Cricket World Cup 2007's venue development officer, was high in praise for Saint Lucia's efforts, saying, “Lights are also an extraordinary improvement for any stadium and the fact that Beausejour is the first stadium in the West Indies that went with lights, shows a progressive nature. St Lucia gets high marks for venue development.”
For tomorrow's match the Caribbean side's final 11 will be chosen from Brian Lara (captain), Christopher Gayle, Runako Morton, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Smith, Denesh Ramdin, Corey Collymore, Fidel Edwards, Jerome Taylor, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Dwayne Bravo and Dave Mohammed.
The West Indies comes into the match leading the series 3-0.
