National Cricket Stadium is located in St. George’s, Grenada and is home to the West Indies Cricket team which competes in the ICC World Cup Series as well as the Windward Island team that competes in the WICB Professional Cricket League. The facility was previous know as Queens Park but after reconstruction was complete it changed names to National Cricket Stadium and became the 84th test venue in 2002 for the ICC Cricket World Cup games. It also hosted the ICC World Cup in 2007. The stadium lies adjacent to a football and athletics grounds and the facility in a whole provides for most of the athletics in the country. The government of Grenada has taken great pride in the facility and hopes that the newly finished grounds will bring in big talent from across the world to train in their facility. “It is our vision that it will also be able to be used as a training facility for the best in the world — who can come to Grenada particularly in the northern winter periods to fine tune their skills and maintain their standards,” Minister Pierre said.
Cricket may be the nation’s most popular sport, however Grenada’s most known athletes are Kirani James (pictured on the right) and Shalrie Joseph (pictured below). Kirani James is Grenada’s first ever Olympic gold medalist. He competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics games in London and won the 400 meter run as a 19yr old. This win only added to his resume as he had won the World Championships in this event the year before.
Shalrie Joseph is a Grenadian football player who currently plays for New England Revolution in Major League Soccer. As a ten year veteran in the MLS he has 273 appearances, 39 goals, and 35 assists and was a finalist for 2009 MLS MVP, four-time MLS Best XI Player and seven-time MLS All-Star.
Post submitted by Steven Locicero, Georgia Gwinnett College
Sources consulted:
http://www.gov.gd/egov/news/2013/dec13/17_12_13/item_2/minister_hails_reconstruction_stadium.html
http://www.espncricinfo.com/westindies/content/ground/59490.html
https://www.flickr.com/photos/39307071@N00/144225115/
http://sportsdoinggood.com/2012/08/13/sports-doing-good-newsletter-20/
http://www.mlssoccer.com/players/shalrie-joseph