Richard Blackford Painted Some Picture Expressing the Culture of Cricket in the Caribbean Region

Jamaican artist Richard Blackford has recently created some pictures of cricket field which shows the excitement and the passion of cricket. Ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup he has done this praiseworthy work. In his works, he features the history of the game cricket and the pictures seem to talk in favor of cricket itself which is very much interesting to look at. This is the best way to gather the culture of Caribbean cricket. In a picture it is seen that some people are playing cricket the beach which typically depict the traditional cricket of West Indies. Jamaica Observer reported:

Blackford's drawings ranges from a group of cricket lovers playing "ketchie shoobie" at the public Hellshire Beach, in St Catherine, to a new batsman at the wicket being caught airborne trying to evade a characteristically sharp rising delivery from a West Indies fast bowler.

And then the wonderful sight of a batsman being comprehensively bowled by a fired-up Windies quick to a traditional scene of a crowded Caribbean village inherently involved as they watched a "Curry Goat" match.
It was only two years ago, Blackford said, that the idea of creating Images of the Game came about after the West Indies were awarded the right to host the ICC Cricket World Cup.

"We started out doing just a flat calendar... and the idea started growing on me: 'why don't we put these things together as a collection?' And that was about August last year," Blackford told the Sunday Observer at the launch Thursday at Kingston Cricket Club.
Images of the Game, he said, is not exclusively cricket.

"It (Images of the Game) concentrates on cricket now, because cricket is in vogue now," said Blackford, "and I personally believe it represents... what we all should do in Jamaica. We must try to get behind whatever the country is promoting."

The future success of Blackford's ideology will, however, be dependent on how well his 2007 Souvenir Cricket Calendar does.
But according to George Davis, executive director of marketing firm The Book Merchant Limited, plans have been long in place to maximise sales worldwide.

"It's a two-in-one product, meaning it's a calendar, but also a bit of art. So it shouldn't be hard to sell," said Davis, whose company will be marketing the collector's item.
"I think people are going to go crazy (for the calendar). They haven't seen anything like this from this side of the world. We think it's going to create a lot of excitement.

"We're sending two of our colleagues to other parts of the Caribbean and also to the UK and as far as to India," Davis added.
Fans are in for a treat, as Blackford has been invited by the organisers of this year's World Cup to host exhibitions of his cricket paintings during matches at Sabina Park and the grand final in Barbados.
"... This is a winner, this is a seller, this is vision," said Pat Ramsay, director of Art and Culture at the UTech Centre for the Arts, in delivering the main address in front of members of the cricket fraternity and the diplomatic corps.

"This shows somebody who... has vision and implemented his vision and is able to produce."
Images of the Game Souvenir Cricket Calendar 2007 is being sold at J$1,200 per copy. Interested persons may visit the website, www.imagesofthegame.com, to order framed copies and signed and unsigned prints done on matted paper.

This is a good initiative Richard Blackford taken ahead of the coming world cup tournament as it is a way of presenting the Caribbean culture of cricket. I hope this artistic idea will generate a huge amount for Mr. Blackford.