The tiny island of Montserrat, tucked away in the Leeward Islands, was remembered for all the wrong reasons. In 1995, the capital city of Plymouth was wrecked by a volcano which drove away nearly half the population. The nation has recovered since and now has a bigger profile, thanks to Allen Stanford's investments in the country's cricket and the money enables the Montserrat squad of about 20 players to practise regularly. Scyld Berry, in the Sunday Telegraph, explains why Stanford's funding is so crucial for these islands.
MacPherson Meade, one of Montserrat’s batsmen, works as a part-time groundsman, mowing the field and picking up stones from the black soil. Wicketkeeper David Lane is in construction at the new town of Little Bay, which will replace Plymouth. In the two domestic Stanford Twenty20 tournaments, where there was no appearance fee, they competed like hell for the $25,000 aMn-of-the-Match award and £10,000 Play-of-the-Match award, even if Montserrat beat only the Turks and Caicos Islands.
RSS Feed
