Fans of the sport cricket will have a chance to meet some of the best cricket players from the West Indies this weekend.
The “Cricket Legends Weekend” tournament kicks off at Central Broward Regional Park this Sunday with two games. A North Florida and South Florida team will compete during the 11 a.m. game. The U.S. Cavaliers will face off against the West Indies team at 3 p.m.
Players, who were “legends” in their prime, spanning various decades, will be available for a meet and greet at the Marriott North Hotel in Fort Lauderdale starting at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 4. They’ll also be at the tournament.
Lawrence Rowe is a former West Indies cricket all-star from Jamaica and the organizer of the three-day “Cricket Legends Weekend.”
The famous former batsman lives in Miami and says that some of the greatest players of the game will be here in South Florida this weekend.
“For the cricket lovers, when they come out, they will see the cream of the crop of what West Indies cricket was," he said. "We have people from Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad, Guyana, Antigua. Those are the countries that make up the Legends this weekend.”
This is the second year that Rowe has hosted this event. His said his goal is to bring West Indies players who were legends in their prime back into the limelight, while also giving fans a taste of what modern all-stars have to offer.
His other aim is to show cricket, the second most popular sport in the world, to South Florida’s new fans and diehard ones.
Rowe is well-known not only for being a great batsman, but for his controversial cricket “rebel tours” that he led In the early 1980’s in South Africa during apartheid. He and his team were banned from playing organized West Indies cricket when they returned home.
Proceeds from this weekend’s events will benefit the Lawrence Rowe Foundation. Some of the money raised will benefit Seymour Nurse, a former batsman for the West Indies.
Aside from offering after-school tutoring services, the foundation also supports former cricket players from the West Indies who have “fallen on hard times” either financially or health-wise.
