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Brown in America

A Twenty20 tournament in the US - part 2

By: Santosh :+: Under: Brown in America, Cricket
On: ⋅ May 27, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
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Part 2 - The facilities and the atmosphere

The CCUSA pavilion and grandstand in Florida

The CCUSA facility in South Florida is located about 30 minutes to the North of Miami. The ground is round in shape. If you’ve been to a cricket match in the US, you probably know most of them are played on mat tracks. The CCUSA facility in Florida boasts of a test quality wicket with an outfield to boot. CCUSA also goes through a great deal of effort to maintain this wicket as was evident during the rain storm. The wicket was well protected in a couple of minutes by the ground staff. Two elevated stands around the ground which can be hoisted and lowered on will, for the video cameras covering the match live.

As mentioned in my previous post, there are a couple of seating options - the grandstands (second from left above) for $20 and general admission for $10. If you ever get a chance to go to this stadium, I would highly recommend the grandstands. They’re built to be well shaded irrespective of the time of the day. In the sweltering South Florida heat, unless burning in the sun is your thing, the grandstands provide the necessary protection with comfortable single person seats. General admission means seating out in the open. Sure the tournament organizers provided a few strategically placed tents but for an extra $10, I’d take the grandstands any day. There is a huge maidan (open ground) nearby where vendors sell food and miscellaneous ware with enough space to hold thousands for concerts and tailgating.

Carribean flavor to the tournament

There is an air-conditioned pavilion (leftmost pictured above) accessible to players, staff, VIPs and media. Live commentary is piped throughout the stadium during matches. By my estimates, the grandstand could hold a crowd of up to 5000 people along with the thousands more that can avail of the general seating area. The crowd is mainly a mixture of expatriate South Asians and Carribeans with the occasional Aussie or Englander thrown in. The stadium was so raucous especially during the second match featuring the Windies, that announcements were made for them to calm down. Palm trees swaying in the breeze, live musical instruments, women dressed in carnival gear, free flowing alcohol, party atmosphere - the entire experience had a distinctly Carribean flavor to it.

Previously:
Part 1 - The tournament

Coming soon:
Part 3 - Über Desi behind the scenes - how we briefly went behind the scenes. Featuring 2 legendary cricketers including an extremely controversial former captain of India and also a former Bollywood actress.

Photo slide show of the entire coverage. [Über Desi on Flickr]

Some personal photos including the ones with players are also up on my personal Flickr account.

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