The daytime starts in this men's T20 World Cup may be kinder to British newspaper deadlines and, they claim more importantly, the television audience in India. But Twenty20 cricket in the Caribbean is really all about the bacchanal after dark; those sultry, steamy evenings under lights, where the white ball flies into stands that are already pulsing to a soca beat.
After four group games before sunset, England will step into the calypso tent at 8.30pm local time tonight, 1.30am the next day back home, for their first night game of the tournament. They meet a buoyant, unbeaten West Indies at the ground that carries the name of their head coach and two-time T20 World Cup-winning captain, Daren Sammy. The first outing in the Super Eight phase for both teams, it could rival the party atmosphere of Gros Islet's famous Friday night Jump Up if the buzz in Sammy's native St Lucia is anything to go by.
A taster came on Monday night here. Even though both sides were already through, Rovman Powell and his men wowed their supporters with a serious flex of the muscles and a 104-run win against Afghanistan in their final first-phase game; a more than handy steelpan tune-up for a date with the defending champions 48 hours later. Not that Andre "Muscle" Russell got much of a go, loosening up those bulging biceps as he sat waiting to bat only to face three balls at the back end.
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