Examining his cricket band is Sri Lankan bowler Malinga at King's Jewelry World on Quamina Street and looking on are team mate Sanath Jayasuriya (left) and Looknauth Persaud, the proprietor.
Souvenir sales of official ICC Cricket World Cup items have been around 70% at most authorized CWC souvenir retailers, with small items still up for sale.
Guyana hosted six ICC CWC super eight matches at the Providence Cricket Stadium and although bona fide tourist arrivals fell short of the 37,000 expected visitors, overseas-based Guyanese arrived in their numbers. Guyana hosted matches from March 28 to April 9.
Ryan Persaud, manager of Kings Jewellery World at its Quamina Street location told Stabroek News that cricket-related jewellery such as their cricket bands were in great demand. Among the buyers were members of the South African, Sri Lankan, West Indies and Irish teams, along with tourists and overseas-based Guyanese.
Persaud also said that cricketers who would have bought the bands some 20 years ago returned to the store as well. However, the official ICC items on sale such as key rings were still to be taken.
Generally, Persaud said, in relation to the ICC items he expected more sales. The store sold some 70% of the logo items from its first order and the manager said he had been expecting to retail lots more and to make additional orders, but the store still had some 30% remaining from the first order.
These items were bought from Calabash Gift Shoppe, Hadfield Foundation at 61 Hadfield and Cross streets, the official merchandiser for the ICC CWC merchandise in Guyana. Kings' had applied for that status but was not certified.
ACME General Store at Regent Street also had ICC logo items still on hand. Store Manager Ganesh Singh indicated that the store still had items for sale and though "the sales have been ok," they were not what was expected. This store began selling CWC items in January.
Approximately 75% of the items were sold and these sales included pens, key rings and apparel such as caps and jerseys. Items such as CD racks are still for sale. The sales were evenly spilt between locals, overseas-based Guyanese and a few tourists.
At Woodpecker Products Trophy and Sports shop, Manager Luana Fernandes said all items were sold out except for a few key rings and bottle openers. Most of the items at this store were sold out by April 3, the date of the critical match between host West Indies and Sri Lanka.
And West Indian Sports Complex at 43 Robb Street reported that its ICC CWC items were almost sold out. Supervisor Insaf Ali said a few bottle openers and key chains were still remaining, along with ICC team jerseys for India and Pakistan.
The shoppers of the World Cup items included mostly locals and overseas-based Guyanese.
Giftland Office Max Manager Ian Ramdeo was happy with the store's performance and said "we did pretty well."
The West Indian merchandise, he said, sold out within a week of arrival at the store, despite the host side's poor performance. Remaining to be sold were a few ICC T-shirts and key rings.
Among the shoppers at Giftland were overseas-based Guyanese, locals and a few tourists.
The experience, he reported, was good for the store and it exceeded expectations. Ramdeo said the store underestimated the demand for the West Indies paraphernalia.
From this newspaper's observation at Guyana Stores, the store had a few generic ICC T-shirts along with key rings and bottle openers. No ICC team shirts or jerseys were visible on the shelves. An official from the store had told Stabroek News that the items were not sold out but could not say what percentage of the items were sold.
Stabroek News understands that Nigel's Supermarket that was authorized to sell the ICC items was sold out but another authorized retailer Fogarty's Supermarket had items still for sale.