By Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer 
Wallace and Reifer
THE 27TH Milo/Melbourne Cricket Festival will take place on September 29 at Melbourne Oval and, with several 'top class' former and present West Indies stars already confirmed, it promises to be an exciting day of cricket.
Before outlining the festival details yesterday, led by the club president Tony Becca, and all who were in attendance stood for a minute silence in memory of Jamaican cricketer Laurie Williams.
Williams, a former Jamaica and West Indies all-rounder, and his brother Kevin Janninson were killed in a motor car accident on Sunday along the Portmore Causeway road.
President of the Melbourne Cricket Club Becca, in outlining the festival details for this year, said there would be several differences from previous years.
"Over the years we have brought together some of the stars of yesterday, the champions of today and some of those promising youngsters, who we at Melbourne believe will become stars of tomorrow," Becca said.
"This year, however, we have tried to change the format a bit and also toast the Jamaica cricket team for its successes in recent years. They won the Busta International Shield in 2001, they won the Busta Cup in 2002 and what we are going to do at Milo/Melbourne 2002 is to play the Jamaica team against a Melbourne Invitational XI," Becca said.
"Also, over the past four years we have had a bowling competition but this year we are paying tribute to another outstanding Jamaica team, the netball girls who have done so well for their country in international competitions.
"During the lunchtime interval there will be a netball shootout competition featuring six of the top netball shooters in Jamaica, which will be for a prize money of $10,000," he said.
The club president also gave thanks to this year's sponsors Air Jamaica, Jamaica Pegasus, Courtleigh Hotel and Nestle through their brand product Milo for their continuous support of the festival.
Meanwhile, in delivering the sponsors address, Kenneth Dobe, Category Sale Development Manager of Nestle Jamaica Limited, said: "Milo has been with the Melbourne Cricket Festival since its inception, 26 years ago, it has been 26 great years and as a result we are back for the 27th year and we are here to embrace Melbourne for another 100 years.
"The food drink of champion takes the opportunity to salute a truly champion club in Melbourne," Dobe said, after his company injected $400,000 into this year's event.
For the first time, the winners of the festival will take home $60,000.
JAMAICA - Robert Samuels, Marlon Samuels, Ricardo Powell, Mario Ventura, Leon Garrick, Darren Powell, Jermaine Lawson, Gareth Breese, David Bernard Jr., Audley Sanson, Brenton Parchment and Tamar Lambert.
MELBOURNE INVITATIONAL - Courtney Walsh, Donovan Pagon, Carlton Baugh Jr., Ray Stewart, Llewellyn Meggs, Philo Wallace, Floyd Reifer, Devon Smith, Andrew Jackson, Ian Bradshaw, Colin Stewart, Ravi Rampaul and Howard Harris.
