SHAS­TRI BOODAN

West In­di­an crick­et fans in Flori­da jumped for joy when the Windies team de­feat­ed New Zealand in the first T20 match at the Cen­tral Broward Re­gion­al Park, Lauder­hill, Flori­da on Sat­ur­day. For scores of Flori­da-based Tri­nis the game was an emo­tion­al event. Al­so in at­ten­dance were 50-plus sup­port­ers from Ch­agua­nas, led by may­or Or­lan­do Nages­sar and deputy may­or Gopaul Boodan, who flew in for the match.

Bood­han said: "Its good that we had this vic­to­ry. It cre­at­ed a sense of not on­ly pa­tri­o­tism among na­tion­als of the var­i­ous coun­tries mak­ing up the WI team, but it con­tributed to the grow­ing uni­ty amongst our peo­ple." Nages­sar said he planned to meet with Rickard Ka­plan, may­or of the city of Lauder­hill, to dis­cuss sport­ing and cul­tur­al ven­tures. The ma­jor­i­ty of Trinida­di­ans and To­bag­o­ni­ans at the venue were in an all in­clu­sive par­ty stand.