One News SVG is a partner promoting the Emancipation Cricket Festival. The following is promotional content.
Internal fact check: SakibAl Hasan, though has been at the top of the ODI All-rounder list for sometime, is not currently at the top of the list. Check ICC rankings here.
The Emancipation Cricket Festival presents, SakibAl Hasan, overseas marquee player, Kingstown Kings
Widely considered as the best Bangladeshi cricketer ever, Sakib is undoubtedly a legend of the modern era. An attacking left-handed batsman and proficient left-arm orthodox spinner, he is the only player to have topped the ICC all-rounder rankings in all 3 formats of cricket.
His record of 14,000 international runs and over 600 wickets, is evidence of his world class credentials. He is a royal package of experience and skill. Spread the velvet red carpet, King Sakib is coming to Arnos Vale for the Emancipation Cricket Festival.
This Kingstown Kings marquee player is destined to conquer Arnos Vale with thrilling entertainment.
SVG Emancipation Cricket Festival. Something legendary. Cricket meets culture. Freedom meets fire. A celebration 50 years in the making.
July 31-August 3, Arnos Vale Stadium, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The matches
The matches will begin on Thursday, July 31st, 2025 when Leeward Lions will face Kingstown Kings at 7:00 p.m.
Then, on Friday, August 1, Emancipation Day, Stubbs Masters will face SVG Hairouners at 3:30 p.m., and Grenadines Whalers will face Windward Warriors at 7:00 p.m.
On Saturday, August 2, there will be the third-place play-offs, then on Sunday, August 3rd, Northern Girls will face Southern Girls at 3:30 p.m.
Then the finals which will be between Game 1 and Game 2 winners will take place at 7:00 p.m.
All matches will be held at the Arnos Vale Stadium.
About the festival
The Emancipation Cricket Festival, a conjoined remembrance, commemoration, and celebration of the emancipation or freedom for enslaved African bodies, and the historic triumphs of West Indies cricket, take place in SVG between July 31st and August 3rd, 2025, at the Arnos Vale Sporting Facility. On August 1, 1838 or 187 years ago, the Africans, enslaved by the Britishin the West Indies, won their freedom. On May 17, 1965, or sixty years ago, at home, the West Indies test cricket team, under the captaincy of the iconic Garfield Sobers, were crownedunofficial world champions when they defeated the mighty Australians in the test series, two matches-to-one. On June 21, 1975, or 50 years ago, the West Indies one-day cricket team, under the captaincy of the legendary Clive Lloyd, defeated Australia, at Lord’s London, in the inaugural One Day International Championship. These three anniversaries are being brought together at a critical juncture in the evolution of our Caribbean civilisation.
Emancipation brought a formal end to a monumental crime against humanity, slavery in the West Indies; it opened the way for the humanisation of hitherto enslaved Africans, their individual and collective advancement as human beings; subjugation as chattels or things had come to a formal end for the enslaved persons.
Cricket, a quintessential English sport brought to the British colonies in the West Indies, was embraced and fashioned by our colonised people as an instrument of national liberation. In the process we infused this sport, cricket, with a distinctive West Indian style, sense and sensibility, and called it our own. It has been a core component of our ongoing social democratic revolution, and a distinctive cultural plank of our creolisedCaribbean civilisation. Call it the dialectics of cricket.
The Emancipation anniversary of 2025 arrives at a time when there is growing popular support, at home and abroad, for reparations for native genocide and the enslavement of African bodies as part of the process of repairing the historic legacies of underdevelopment brought about the genocide and enslavement in the Caribbean at the hands of European colonial powers (British, French, Dutch, and Spanish); these and other European powers were so engaged in genocide and enslavement in countries in Latin America and elsewhere. In 2013-2014, the ULP government took the initiative at CARICOM to place the issue of reparations permanently on its agenda for ongoingaction and to establish the CARICOM Reparations Commission. Our Prime Minister, Comrade Ralph, not only led the way at CARICOM on this issue, but has been continuously active in this great cause; and in 2014 he caused to be published a book, authored by him, entitled Caribbean Reparatory Justice, which is available on Amazon.
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