POPULAR peanuts vendor Keith Martin, popularly called Jumbo, has been allowed to ply his trade at the Queens’s Park Oval during this year’s Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
This after he made a video that went viral on social media complaining that he was not allowed to sell his nuts since Sunshine Snacks was one of the sponsors of this year’s Hero CPL.
In a release, Sunshine Snacks, who is also an official sponsor of the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR), said it has taken the executive decision to open the gates of the Queen’s Park Oval to local nuts vendors to sell homemade roasted peanuts.
Jumbo, who is known for his distinctive style of throwing packs of nuts to his customers, said in the video that he has been selling nuts at the Oval since 1971 when India toured the West Indies.
In the release, Sunshine Snacks General Manager Kristine Thompson said, “As an official sponsor of TKR, who actually own the rights to selling at the Queen’s Park Oval- their home grounds, Sunshine Snacks purchased the exclusive right to sell snacks and nuts during the games and we structured our promotions and events along those lines. But the people have spoken and we have listened.”
The company said it has partially waived its paid exclusive rights and will allow local nuts vendors to ply their trade at the games.
Thompson said since July 2017, they have been in communication with the local nuts vendors to sell their products and one vendor was already selling for them at the games.
She said when the cricket fans spoke out in favour of all nuts sellers being part of the cricket culture at the Oval, “we simply decided to put our hearts ahead of our strict sponsorship rights.”Thompson said, “Sunshine Snacks has always respected and promoted local and regional culture.
“We took on this sponsorship to support amazing cricket and to bring the game and its strong culture of family fun to a whole new generation of Caribbean youth. We loved cricket growing up in the Caribbean and we love how this exciting format has brought new life to the sport and regional togetherness.”
