: Well, I am delighted that our good friend Jim is enjoying the cricket at Lord's in London, and I hope that I can assuage some of the concerns that he expressed in your article. One of the elements that I would like to emphasise is the partnership between GEFF and the Bermuda Government, which is designed to provide a legacy for Bermuda in several ways.

When we proposed this tournament, it was very much to engage with the Government to embrace agendas which include sport, tourism, health and education. Our remit, as a not-for-profit foundation, is to help address the consequences of inactivity and obesity, and to help people overcome those challenges.

The great thing is, with Bermuda qualifying for the World Cup, we believe that we're also going to leave a legacy whereby, because we are relaxing the criteria for the Bermuda team taking part in the Classic, the opportunity exists for the Bermuda Cricket Board, who are fully on board with this initiative, to field their national team against some of the greatest cricketing legends of the last two decades.

It's just a very opportune coincidence that our proposal comes at a time when (coach) Gus Logie and the Bermuda players have committed themselves to such an extent that they have won a place in the World Cup, playing against the 'big boys' in (the West Indies) in 2007.

: Yes, indeed; next April, we see ourselves providing an initial event which will give the Bermuda cricket team a chance to learn from the greats. We plan to make this an annual event, although we haven't worked out how we will schedule the event in 2007, but we will do everything possible to assist in maintaining the legacy for cricket, community sport and the health of Bermuda.Firstly, we are not asking the Bermuda Government to fund a new wicket. We are, in fact, working with the top five non-turf pitch providers in the world to bring in a sponsored non-turf wicket to the island. That's our modus operandi: we are working with lots of organisations to ensure that the burden on the Bermuda taxpayer is not as dramatic as it could appear.

Not only will the sponsor provide the non-turf pitch, but it is GEFF's intention that the sponsor will donate that pitch to a venue to be decided by the BCB. We are not here to get rich at Bermuda taxpayers' expense; the whole object of GEFF, as a not-for-profit organisation, is to plough back surplus funds into community sport, health and related projects.

: Our new chief executive, Keith Pont, former director of development at the England and Wales Cricket Board, decided to write a book called . His motivation, after 15 years as a professional cricketer, was that he found himself 'driving a desk' at the ECB for about 12 years, and his health and fitness suffered as a result. He had a very successful career with Essex, at a time when they were as dominant as Manchester United were in soccer, when Graham Gooch was captain and Keith Fletcher was manager.

'Ponty' went on to have a track record of being one of the most high-profile and successful sports development people in the UK; he's created initiatives that have been taken to the West Indies, and his whole is to help with community sport, and he's become very cognisant of the relationship between sport, physical activity, and the health of a nation.

One of the things that is not well enough known is that inactivity and obesity, which result in diabetes, cancers and heart problems, are becoming the leading causes of preventable death. We are aware of the scale of the problem here, but it's becoming a world-wide problem; Italy has one of the fastest-growing rates of inactivity and obesity, and the Western World has a real challenge on its hands, but there also some of the usual signs in China.

So Keith wrote the book, and we decided to set up an organisation to promote health and fitness, and GEFF was launched earlier this year in the UK.

In the planning process, during 2004, we had always intended to find an international launch pad, and it so happened that we were invited to Bermuda, to the World Rugby Classic, to interview some of the leading rugby stars like (retired English captain) Martin Johnson and Francois Pienaar, and it was during that exercise of interviewing those players for the GEFF DVD, that we all looked at each other and said that we should do a classic cricket event, and that Bermuda was the perfect venue.

We developed a comprehensive proposal, and worked with the Premier and other Ministers and officials, and they saw GEFF's mission as being very much in keeping with their community sports, tourism and education objectives.

: We met with the Premier, and the four Cabinet Ministers representing Tourism, Sport, Health and Education, and thereafter, we met with the whole Cabinet, and were questioned by them in detail on the proposal. I led the discussions on behalf of GEFF at that stage.

Over a period of about five months, we came to an agreement in principle, so none of this was rushed. We started with informal contacts and in-principle discussions with Government, which graduated to a very comprehensive and formal proposal. There will be a contract, and we will deliver what we have promised to deliver.

We are delighted by the foresight of the Bermuda Government, to recognise the link between physical activity and health, and when you see the virtual plan which shows the combination of a health and physical activity 'village' at the National Stadium, sitting alongside the cricket classic, you will see the combination that GEFF represents, and for those purposes, the Bermuda Government is the first nation to recognise its significance, and to act as a platform for GEFF to take the concept to other countries around the world.

This will be the international launch, and the combined experience of Keith Pont, Caroline Knox and myself should mean that Bermuda is by no means a 'guinea pig' here. And, of course, we are working with the Rugby Classic team, who are aboard to help. We are working with them in a formal partnership and will be able to draw on their 18-year expertise.

: A corporate background, working mainly in IT, for organisations like the Ocean Group and Philips Electronics in the UK, and the IBM family. I set up my own business in the people development arena, and worked with sport in Australia, Africa, and with the ECB for the last ten years, as a provider of people development and communications skills, and leadership and team-building. In September 2003, Keith walked into the office where Caroline and I were working on a project for him, and said he wanted to write the book, and it was the catalyst for GEFF. That's when I suggested we set up an organisation to promote exactly what you want to write about, and GEFF was born, and has been evolving for the past year, principally with Caroline and myself, and then Keith decided to commit himself wholeheartedly and to leave the ECB and come aboard as chief executive in April.

We are all directors, and will be salaried as employees of GEFF, but nobody is going to be a millionaire as a result! We are a limited company, but any financial surplus generated will be ploughed back in to the pursuit of GEFF's objectives.

Not directly, but we have been recognised by the trade association of governing bodies in the UK as the national governing body for physical activity. We are not funded apart from our own private funds, and we have all invested individually, and significantly, to get GEFF to the position it's at now. We have put our money, and a lot of energy, where our mouths are!

Well, firstly, I met with the Department of Community Affairs & Sport yesterday, and the Department of Tourism, with various potential local sponsors and other participants in the whole exercise, and my remit is to pull together various public and private sector parties to ensure we deliver on our proposal.

We are going to be very regular visitors to the island, but on this occasion, Keith and I wanted to experience our first Cup Match. We know it's taken very seriously; a taxi driver told me yesterday that he had five gallons of Rum Swizzle maturing in time for the event ? and that was just for day one!

But we're taking it very seriously, watching Cup Match, because we see the capacity for the 20-20 World Cricket Classic being about 5,000, and our target is to bring in 1,000 visiting cricket fans, including the teams. So, we hope that 4,000 of the seats will be filled by Bermudians, so we have an interest in knowing what will make it work and be fun for Bermudians, as well as for overseas visitors.

: Well, we think that Bermuda has some special attractions which will bring people here for the Classic, and that's why we all looked at each other and knew that Bermuda should be the home of the Cricket Classic.

Caroline came up with the phrase that it will be a combination of cricket excellence and tourist indulgence, and we don't think that's an exaggeration in terms of how we see this package appealing to people from the participating cricket nations, but especially England, who will see Bermuda as a very attractive destination and as an alternative to the traditional overseas fixtures on the agenda.

We are doing this in conjunction with the Department of Tourism, so my briefing with them yesterday was to bring them up to speed with progress to date, and together, as partners, we are developing a strategy to communicate with all of the seven overseas nations, the east coast of the US, and within Bermuda itself. Well, Caroline lived here for seven years and has experienced this unique tradition, but Keith is coming in on Tuesday especially for the event, and it will be our first time, and we are very much looking forward to it. I am determined to catch up with the cab driver with the five gallons of rum swizzle!

But, seriously, we will be taking in the whole experience, and hope to use that to develop an annual event which will create a significant legacy of health and fitness for Bermuda. It's a serious global problem, and we intend to try to do something about it. We have to start somewhere, and we are very pleased that the somewhere is Bermuda.