VETERAN BARBADIAN cricket writer and broadcaster Tony Cozier will take centre stage during the opening ceremony of the Cricket World Cup.

Cozier is seen as the voice of West Indies cricket and has been covering West Indies cricket for over five decades. He will feature doing commentary as Bajan stilt walkers do an enactment of a cricket match during the opening gala at the new Greenfield facility
in Trelawny, Jamaica, on March 11.

The opening "blast-off" will be three hours and will have scenes representative of the vibrant lifestyle and heritage of the region. The organisers said that it will be the "welcome the world" the region will be hoping to send.

The evening event will start with a medley of calypso, dancehall, mento, reggae, ska, soca and other musical genres. It will also include a variety of dance sequences, a mass choir and fire blowers. There will also be an energetic drum score by a visiting troop from South Africa, symbolising the link between the previous World Cup and this year's mega-event.

Carnival will be a central theme of the evening's proceedings and various scenes will see characters such as revellers, a shaggy bear and plantation girls "playing mas" and depicting the merriment of these occasions and the flavour of Mello, the tournament mascot. (PS)