The cor­po­rate Sky Box ex­pe­ri­ence at world-class sta­di­ums is an un­par­al­leled fu­sion of lux­u­ry, ex­clu­siv­i­ty, and net­work­ing. It of­fers a prime seat for the ac­tion while pro­vid­ing an en­vi­ron­ment where at­ten­dees can in­ter­act with high-pro­file per­son­al­i­ties like leg­endary crick­eter Bri­an Lara or glob­al­ly renowned ath­letes such as Ronal­do, Mes­si, or Us­ain Bolt.

When it comes to crick­et in the Caribbean, par­tic­u­lar­ly at the Queen’s Park Oval, and now the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my, sev­er­al peo­ple get what I re­fer to as easy ac­cess to these box­es. While there are high-end clients of par­tic­u­lar cor­po­rate or­gan­i­sa­tions hand­picked, and promi­nent lo­cal per­son­al­i­ties in­vit­ed for cer­tain days, there is al­so a fair amount of guests who have the “link”.

A quick scan last Sun­day, I wit­nessed peo­ple at Bri­an Lara’s box get­ting a chance to in­ter­act with the world-dou­ble record hold­er, and hav­ing him sign copies of his book, and even pos­ing with him for pho­tographs. I won­dered if those peo­ple had any idea what fans in In­dia or Eng­land would give for such an op­por­tu­ni­ty.

The ben­e­fits of be­ing in a Sky Box go be­yond just the sport­ing spec­ta­cle. It is a space where in­flu­en­tial busi­ness lead­ers, celebri­ties, and top-tier ath­letes min­gle, cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for strate­gic con­ver­sa­tions, col­lab­o­ra­tions, and once-in-a-life­time con­nec­tions. For cor­po­rate clients, it’s a pow­er­ful tool for en­ter­tain­ing key part­ners, seal­ing busi­ness deals, and re­in­forc­ing re­la­tion­ships in an in­for­mal, high-en­er­gy set­ting.

For sports en­thu­si­asts, it’s the ul­ti­mate lux­u­ry of wit­ness­ing their favourite ath­letes up close while en­joy­ing five-star ameni­ties, from gourmet cater­ing to pri­vate lounges.

How­ev­er, ac­cess to these box­es, is no small feat at world pop­u­lar events, cer­tain­ly out­side of the Caribbbean. It of­ten re­quires cor­po­rate con­nec­tions, elite mem­ber­ships, or a hefty price tag, mak­ing it a priv­i­lege re­served for a se­lect few.

For those for­tu­nate enough to gain ac­cess, the ex­pe­ri­ence should be cher­ished. It’s not just about the game; it’s the en­tire am­biance—a blend of sports, lux­u­ry, and rare en­coun­ters. It’s a mo­ment to ap­pre­ci­ate the rare op­por­tu­ni­ty to en­joy the best of both worlds.

Lara men­tions in his book what an ho­n­our it was to fea­ture in a Leg­ends match along­side France su­per­star Zine­dine Zi­dane. I re­call an op­por­tu­ni­ty I had while on du­ty at the FI­FA U-20 Men’s World Cup in An­talya, Turkey. Zi­dane was do­ing some scout­ing, turn­ing up to view one of the group games. You had to be ei­ther a FI­FA of­fi­cial or a high-rank­ing per­son­al­i­ty to get with­in two me­tres of the for­mer French cap­tain.

For the lay­man, it’s a sur­re­al ex­pe­ri­ence that of­fers a glimpse in­to the op­u­lent side of sports and en­ter­tain­ment, while for the big shots, it’s an af­fir­ma­tion of sta­tus and an in­valu­able net­work­ing plat­form.

Re­gard­less of one’s back­ground, the Sky Box is a place where every­one feels part of some­thing spe­cial, re­in­forc­ing the val­ue of the mo­ment.

In Eu­rope, the US, Asia, or South Amer­i­ca, gain­ing ac­cess to a Sky Box at a top-tier sta­di­um where foot­ball leg­ends like David Beck­ham, Ronal­do, Ronald­in­ho, Mes­si, or Zi­dane might make an ap­pear­ance is a high­ly ex­clu­sive and ex­pen­sive ex­pe­ri­ence. The price tag for these lux­u­ri­ous box­es can eas­i­ly run in­to thou­sands of dol­lars per match or event.

In ad­di­tion to the cost, there is of­ten a lay­er of cor­po­rate spon­sor­ship, elite club mem­ber­ships, or per­son­al con­nec­tions re­quired to even be con­sid­ered for en­try. The ex­clu­siv­i­ty is height­ened by the high de­mand in these re­gions, where the cul­ture of foot­ball bor­ders on the fa­nat­i­cal.

Peo­ple in these coun­tries are will­ing to pay a pre­mi­um for the chance to net­work in the same space as their idols.

In con­trast, in T&T, and the rest of the Caribbean, while meet­ing a leg­end like Bri­an Lara or Viv Richards might still oc­cur with­in the con­fines of a Sky Box, the bar­ri­ers to en­try are con­sid­er­ably low­er.

The cost of Sky Box ac­cess or rental is rel­a­tive­ly af­ford­able com­pared to Eu­rope, South Amer­i­ca, or the US. Crick­et, though pas­sion­ate­ly fol­lowed, doesn’t car­ry the same glob­al hype and eco­nom­ic im­pli­ca­tions as foot­ball does in Eu­rope or South Amer­i­ca, which helps keep the ex­pe­ri­ence more ac­ces­si­ble.

Fur­ther­more, be­cause Lara is a lo­cal hero, the op­por­tu­ni­ties to in­ter­act with him in such set­tings are more fre­quent and can of­ten be arranged through more per­son­al or com­mu­ni­ty con­nec­tions, mak­ing it a bit less de­pen­dent on wealth or cor­po­rate clout, at times at least.

In T&T, meet­ing Lara in a Sky Box feels more in­ti­mate and cul­tur­al­ly ground­ed. Rus­sell Lat­apy al­so signed a few au­to­graphs on Sun­day. And a few months ago, fans in Scot­land rushed for the rare op­por­tu­ni­ty to pur­chase tick­ets for a meet and greet with the “Lit­tle Ma­gi­cian” at East­er Road.

Ul­ti­mate­ly, while the Eu­ro­pean or South Amer­i­can ex­pe­ri­ence of­fers an au­ra of ex­treme pres­tige and glob­al ex­po­sure, the Trinidad ex­pe­ri­ence with Lara is more ap­proach­able, af­ford­able, and cul­tur­al­ly en­riched, al­low­ing fans to feel a stronger per­son­al con­nec­tion with­out need­ing to pay ex­or­bi­tant sums. We as Caribbean peo­ple need to ap­pre­ci­ate this more and re­al­ly val­ue the ex­pe­ri­ence.

Cur­rent crick­et stars, de­spite their im­mense con­tri­bu­tions to crick­et, have yet to reach the leg­endary sta­tus of icons like, among many oth­ers, Lara Richards, Sir Gary Sobers, Clive Lloyd, Curt­ly Am­brose, Court­ney Walsh, Wes Hall, Shiv Chan­der­paul, Michael Hold­ing, Dwight Yorke, Stern John, Rus­sell Lat­apy, and oth­er lo­cal foot­ball he­roes.

While cur­rent-day match win­ners have carved out suc­cess­ful in­ter­na­tion­al ca­reers, their fame and im­pact, though sig­nif­i­cant, some may ar­gue, hasn’t yet ce­ment­ed them as the kind of time­less, all-en­com­pass­ing leg­ends who tran­scend the sport it­self.

In con­trast, Lara’s lega­cy goes be­yond his crick­et­ing sta­tis­tics. His achieve­ments, such as the high­est in­di­vid­ual Test and first-class scores, are part of the sport’s lore.

Lara is not just re­mem­bered for his great­ness on the field but al­so for how he sym­bol­ised hope and pride for the West In­dies in an era when re­gion­al crick­et was strug­gling. His name res­onates on a glob­al scale across all for­mats and gen­er­a­tions.

What sets these old­er leg­ends apart is their con­tri­bu­tion to el­e­vat­ing not just their in­di­vid­ual ca­reers but their coun­tries on the world stage. They rep­re­sent a gen­er­a­tion that broke through im­mense bar­ri­ers, car­ry­ing the weight of na­tion­al ex­pec­ta­tions on their shoul­ders. Their achieve­ments are not just ath­let­ic but sym­bol­ic of an era where they de­fined ex­cel­lence for their coun­tries.

This is why we must re­spect the leg­ends, in­clud­ing those cur­rent­ly in the mak­ing. They paved the way, build­ing the foun­da­tion on which to­day’s stars stand. Their achieve­ments came at a time when few­er op­por­tu­ni­ties ex­ist­ed, and they had to over­come greater chal­lenges to reach their heights. They con­tin­ue to in­spire younger gen­er­a­tions, both in their re­spec­tive sports and be­yond.

These fig­ures be­came not on­ly cham­pi­ons in their fields but am­bas­sadors for T&T and the Caribbean on the glob­al stage.