Bowled over: Viv Richards on Antigua

One of my earliest memories is of feeling the sand - just sitting and rubbing sand between my fingers and toes. Later, as older boys, we would slope off from home - and school, of course - and head straight for the beach. Our parents would be going crazy because we'd be flirting with the water. But we didn't care; it was pure liberty.

Antigua is proud of its beaches. As you'll be often told, there are 365 beaches, one for each day of the year, but more importantly for every mood. The best thing to do in Antigua is to sit on the surf. When you've experienced that, all other aspects of enjoyment will come into place.

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The beach we grew up by was Fort James. We had easy access to it and spent every minute there when we weren't in our starched uniforms. What we most enjoyed was going out fishing - our parents thought we were in the park. Improvised fishing would be a better description. A pole with some string, a twisted nail for a hook and an earthworm for bait and then titanic struggles that ended with a tin can filled with sand. We were lucky, though: usually you'd get small fishes, but once I got a lobster on my line. Not good enough for the restaurant but bang good enough to quiet the parents when we got back.

The beach was our football and cricket pitch. The bowler would wait until the water had just skimmed the shore. Then he would let loose a cannon, a terrible, shaved tennis ball that would hit the water and then your shirtless body unless you were quick about it. It got wet, hard, and we did a lot of damage that way. Later on when we played with real cricket balls the bowler would aim for the shins, and since we couldn't afford pads you had to have a really good eye. You can still see a few future champions on the beach now; the rest are just hobbling.

We used to go to the beach as a family very often. My mother was a member of the Mothers Union - a wing of the church that does community work. She would make a royal picnic that would take the whole of the previous day to prepare. We would have pepperpot, a stew made from yams, sweet potatoes or other root vegetables and meat, doucouna dumplings made from sweet potato and coconut, wrapped in banana leaves and boiled, and the famous Antiguan black pineapple, sweeter than anything. Naturally, like every other Caribbean island there is also fungi or fungee, a cornmeal porridge - what they call coocoo in Barbados. It was one long feast of a day.

That's when Dad would play cricket with us. He was a cricketer and played for Antigua, and even though the bat was bigger than me, I was hooked. Those days were precious. I think if your father represented your country, you're born into something; it rubs off on you.

Antigua was all my life until the age of 14, and then our school went to St Kitts to play against the grammar school cricket team. I can feel the excitement even now. Our parents were there to see us off, but we weren't picked up by the QEII; we went in a small fishing boat and the combination of the rotten leftovers of fish and the waves rising made us all sick as dogs. Imagine 11 heads over the side.

It seemed a long journey and we slept on deck. We were there for a week and the difference between the sights and sounds of the islands was wondrous, but the most fascinating thing was the monkeys - green vervets. They were brought over by the French two centuries ago from Africa and they can get drunk on fermented sugar cane after a storm. I hadn't seen a monkey, except on the TV show Daktari and Tarzan. It's a lush country.

At that age, I got a bike and started to explore the other Antiguan beaches. My friends had bikes as well, so we would go in a convoy and explore sandy nooks and coves. Fort James, my childhood beach, has an old fort with all of its 10 cannons; they protected St John's, the capital, from pirates and French raiders from Guadeloupe. Anyone who was entering the harbour would certainly feel the wrath of what was coming down from that hill. There is a big naval heritage to the island. Antigua played a maximum part in Nelson's life. He spent around three years here building Nelson's Dockyard, even though he described the island as a "dreadful hole" and complained of the mosquitoes. He must have been fairly happy because he was busy with a girl in Nevis.

I would use Fryers Bay beach, which is on the south-west of the island, for a family day out. It's lined with trees and the sea is calm, loved by snorkellers, and there's a good view of Montserrat. Generally, you'll find more pelicans than people here. You can do the barbecue just at the back of the beach and then run down with the food. Turners Beach, again on the south west, is cooled by trade winds, so it's good for sunbathing. Hawksbill Bay has four wonderful white sand beaches and is on the Five Islands Peninsula west of St John's - one is a nude beach but it's also Surf Central, with kite surfers spreading their sails huge on the sky. Surfers go for the big swells.

Dickenson Bay, on the north-west coast, is Antigua's best-known beach. It's good for watersports, and because it's lined with little hotels it has all the sophisticated facilities you need. Spoilt for choice, I'll tell you that. If you have a four-wheel drive, go to Rendezvous Bay on the south coast and indulge in total peace for chilling - or something more romantic.

If you want to be active, go fishing. When Ian Botham comes over we go deep-sea fishing. He loves it. You get strapped into the chair and harness and you pray to God that the thing that you catch doesn't come and yank you out of the seat and off on a deep-sea cruise. Marlin, barracuda, tuna and shark are all to be found around here. We once caught a marlin of 400lb. They play with you and take you around because they're strong. Sailing closer to Barbuda you'll always have the best of the lobsters and some of the best seafood.

There is something else to Antigua, though I don't want to give the impression it's a desert island. After a day at the beach you've got a hunger on you. My first recommendation would be Le Bistro; it's the finest restaurant on the island serving classic French food. There's a good wine list, good seafood and elegant interior but they're not fussed about you wearing jackets. Nowhere on the island is that formal. Whenever we have guests, I go to Sheer at the Cocobay Hotel. This is near Jolly Beach and the views over the water are stunning. It's a nice hotel, too; you can see the hammocks swinging on the decks of the chalets. I've been a few times and it's left a real impression on me. Carlisle Bay on the south coast has a great backdrop, white beach and rainforest behind. It serves Asian food, perfect for light eating.

Then afterwards there is no better place to have a sundowner than Shirley Heights. This used to be an old lookout point. It has been restored and has huge views over Nelson's Dockyard and English Harbour. I was there recently and it's more of a ragamuffin style of thing, a great environment of steel drums and reggae for a big jump-up. There's a party atmosphere, especially on Sunday night, when the whole island seems to be there. It's just nice to get drunk on a hill.

But I know a visitor like Beefy would appreciate the local bars too. I mean the real local bars, in St John's. Places like Points or Villa. There are lots of places where you can drink rum by the water. You don't have to be in the best environment, or in the greatest or most refined buildings, but you can just watch the life go by. These bars have character. There's always guys dancing, smashing down dominoes, watching telly, and the radio would be on as well, with high talk into the night. I take him to a place of locals, mostly my friends, and he is comfortable in that environment. Some would be drinkers and they would have heard about his feats of drinking and want to take him on.

Antigua always had the reputation for being a bit quiet. That reputation is dying and I think the Cricket World Cup next year will confirm that. We like to entertain. What I can guarantee you is that the sights and sounds of the Caribbean will be heard loudly.

The Cup is much wider and bigger than anything we've done. It is almost two weeks of carnival. We're looking forward to being ambassadors for the Caribbean and in general most of the islands take the opportunity of 2007 seriously, they're not going to muck it up in some laid-back fashion. The response so far has been overwhelming. We have lots of volunteers and people will be opening up their own homes for visitors, hoping you can come again after experiencing it.

Now that you know a little about the island you can imagine what it was like going to England for the first time in 1974. I now consider England as a home away from home because it played a huge part in my sporting life - I spent 13 years playing for Somerset - but at the time it was the coldest thing I had ever experienced.

It was also strange that I couldn't go to the beach every day. I couldn't just jump on my bike and ride down. That was a shock. And then I tried to find a beach and I found Weston-super-Mare - and that was another serious shock. There was no comparison to Antigua - candy floss, sticks of rock, kiss-me-quick hats. I used to find that fascinating. You know, I used to think these people are really enjoying themselves and there isn't much beach or sand here. Why are they here? To inhale the sea air?

Boy did I hurry back to Antigua in the winter. Yeah man, the very first day I arrived back, I dumped my stuff and then it was beach, beach, beach. See you for the cricket!

For further information contact the Antigua and Barbuda Tourist Office (020-7258 0070; antigua-barbuda.com)

Top places to stay

We have lots of comfortable hotels - the Halcyon Cove by Rex Resorts right on the beach of Dickenson Bay, the Grand Royal Antiguan Beach Resort on the north-west coast by the entrance of Deep Bay. But the best are the small hotels. The World Cup 2007 means the guesthouses have been spruced up and many people will be giving up rooms in their own homes in a Homestay programme, an idea that has been done before with other major tests. It may not be of a five-star hotel standard with pool attached, but it's the nearest you'll get to understanding Antiguan values and the powerful feeling cricket evokes.

My favourite party

Antigua's carnival [28 July-7 August; antigua carnival.com] is something that we all look forward to, when far-flung family come from abroad. But it isn't all colour, music and madness. There are plenty of competitions too. Judges try to find the king and queen of calypso, the best pan

[steel drum] players, dancers and floats, which people take a year to prepare. There are loads of tents set up for music including soca, a soul/calypso combo.

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