Grant for Eezee Kricket

A GRANT from Caribbean Export is helping to push locally created game Eezee Kricket in several international business realms.While the board game’s inventor, James Corbin, did not make the sum public, he told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY in a telephone interview on Thursday that the grant – which came through the European Union – would go towards market research to tailor the game to the Pakistan and Sri Lanka markets. He said a British company was undertaking the research.He reported that a new international version built on the original West Indian version of the game was recently launched and catered to the United States, England, Canada and India.Corbin noted that distribution of the international game had started in the US, England and Canada, while negotiations with potential distributors in India were ongoing.Eezee Kricket, which is played with a die on a board and allows several players at a time to score imaginary runs, features questions about international cricketers and cricket events.“It does not cost a lot to produce another version. All you have to do is redesign the board and change the questions,” he said about the game that is currently being manufactured in China.PartnershipsAn inaugural 13-week television version of the game recently completed a successful run on the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation in Barbados at an investment of approximately $130 000, and Corbin said he was in the process of forming partnerships for the licensing of the Eezee Kricket television game show throughout the Caribbean.“We are also in the process of posting the game on facebook, where people would be able to pay a fee to play a few rounds of the game and when their credit is out, they could buy more to play,” he said.Moreover, Corbin said a teenage version that captured cricket highlights of the last five years was in the works, as well as a World Cup version which he was negotiating with the International Cricket Council to produce in time for next year’s ICC Cricket World Cup in India.“This game is making people overseas more aware of Barbados and we are looking to partner with the Ministry of Tourism. It is providing employment for people in Barbados to do graphic design, sales and logistics planning for overseas distribution,” Corbin said. (SR)