KEY POINTS:
GROS ISLET, St Lucia, - They certainly weren't dancing in the streets of Castries when Sir Garfield Sobers declared cricket's World Cup open.
St Lucians usually only need the sound of two sticks beating together to start 'whining' -- around here that's patois for 'shakin' your booty'.
But as pyrotechnics partially illuminated Jamaica's Trelawny Stadium, the occasion passed without fanfare at New Zealand's Cup base as locals sleepwalked through another soporific Sunday.
The first rains in a week hardly put a dampener on festivities at dusk -- the waterfront capital was already barely registering a pulse as the most significant sporting event in the far-flung cricket-mad West Indies was largely ignored.
St Lucia hosts New Zealand, England, Kenya and Canada for the duration of group C's schedule and has the honour of Beausejour Stadium holding the semifinal between the first and fourth seeded semifinalist's on Anzac Day (April 26 NZT).
The intensity is expected to ramp up today -- if only on the security side as the quartet arrive from Jamaica.
Machinegun-toting guards will keep any inquisitive locals at bay at Hewanorra International Airport as the players are escorted north on a new unmarked tarseal highway which, like a variety of World Cup projects, is not quite finished.
A loosely timed hour-long journey dissects banana plantations along the east coast, past Micoud and Praslin before veering left at Dennery to climb through the rain forest before reaching the clearance that is Castries on the north-west coastline.
There is a clue to St Lucia's laissez faire attitude over all the fuss about a game pioneered by England's gentlemen.
It was the French who first influenced island life, though after a series of bloody battles -- the historical scorecard records a draw, with seven victories apiece -- the English finally held sway until independence was granted in 1979.
The indifference has been compounded by the fact the West Indies' World Cup squad doesn't feature a St Lucian after Darren Sammy missed the cut.
That oversight doesn't sit well with local experts like Windell, a promising fast bowler of Curtley Ambrose dimensions until a motorcycling accident shore off all but the thumb on his bowling hand.
"I blame the selectors, it's a power trip for them," he said.
"If you're not their favourites you don't have a chance. They're killing the sport here."
Ticket prices are another turn-off for the single-handed fisherman. He was contemplating Wednesday's match between Kenya and Canada but with the cheapest tickets costing $90 ($45), well, that's a bucket load of tuna.
Meanwhile, World Cup contractors aren't the only one's racing the clock to ensure everything is spick and span when the toss is made.
Herbert Evans, who claims ancestry to Queen Victoria, is meandering towards to completing his bar, a short walk from the major tourist resorts at Labrellotte Bay.
The wooden structure placed precariously on stilts should have been finished last month, but these things happen.
"Maybe next Friday," he shrugged.
Is he not concerned about not cashing in on the influx of visitors? Not at all.
"It's going to be for the family around here, there be no vagabonds.
"But welcome to St Lucia," he offers as consolation.
"I hope you enjoy the World Cup to your greatest capability."
- NZPA
